Download Spain`s Empire

European Exploration
19-1, 20-1
BACKGROUND:
By 1400s CE Arabs and Chinese most skilled at sailing long
distances. Europeans began to sail farther into the
unknown, why?
Driven by curiosity, desire to spread Christianity, and for
economic reasons
Economic reasons:
•Desire to find direct trade routes btwn Europe and
Asia to bypass Arab and Italian middle men = buy
Asian goods at lower prices
•Fear that Ottoman Turks would cut off overland trade
routes, which the Ottomans controlled
For God, Glory, and Gold!
Europeans looking
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For new wealth… gold (and silver)
For spices
For sea routes to Asia
To convert souls to Christianity
To avoid Muslim trade routes controlled by Arabs and
Italians
Contact with Chinese and Arabs led to improvements
in tools of Exploration
• Caravel – ships could sail against wind with triangular
sail (lanteen) – favored by Muslims
• Compass - invented by Chinese
• Improvements in mapmaking with coordinates
• Astrolabe - brass circle with adjusted rings marked
off in degrees important to determine latitude
– Line up w/ stars to determine latitude
– Later replaced by the sextant in the mid-1700s to
determine latitude and longitude
astrolabe
sextant
Caravel with
lanteen sail
Christopher Columbus, Italian
• Searching for Asia via western
route over Atlantic Ocean
• 1492 landed in Bahamas
• Called natives Indians - b/c he
thought he was in India
• Searching for gold
• King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain financed
his voyage
• He did not know he discovered new world
They ... brought us parrots and balls of cotton and spears and many other
things, which they exchanged for the glass beads and hawks’ bells. They
willingly traded everything they owned... . They were well-built, with good
bodies and handsome features.... They do not bear arms, and do not know
them, for I showed them a sword, they took it by the edge and cut themselves
out of ignorance. They have no iron. Their spears are made of cane... . They
would make fine servants.... With fifty men we could subjugate them all
and make them do whatever we want.
Columbus and his men took
natives as slaves, shipped
hundreds to Spain – most
died in the process, the rest
after arriving.
They used the natives as
torture toys, sex slaves, and
as dog food.
Portugal 1st country to explore the Atlantic
Ocean… looking for trade route to Asia
Vasco da Gama
• 1st to reach India by ship 1498
Amerigo Vespucci
•1499 Crossed Atlantic… realized Columbus had not
reached Asia, but “new” world
•Mapmakers labeled Western Hemisphere for
Amerigo = America
Ferdinand Magellan, Portuguese
• Expedition paid for by Spain
• 1519 first to circumnavigate
the globe
• 270 men, 5 ships
• Battles in Philippines where he
was killed
• Only 18 men return & 1 ship
• Significance of voyage =
established earth was round
and oceans were connected
• Named the Pacific Ocean
Hernando Cortes, Spain
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Conquistadors - Spanish explorers
1st settlers in Americas
Looking for gold
Destroyed Aztec empire 1521 –
Aztec thought he was Quetzalcoatl
• Reasons for victory
1. Superior weapons
2. Allied w/ other native groups
3. Disease - small pox
Missionaries
• Traveled w/ conquistadores for converts
• Protested poor treatment of natives by Europeans
James Cook, British captain
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Sailed to New Zealand & New Holland (Australia)
1760s-1779
Sailed around the world 2xs
1st British commander to
prevent scurvy
• 1st known European to reach
Hawaii (where he was killed)
Samuel de Champlain, French Explorer
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Sailed St. Lawrence river
32 colonists
Founded Quebec
Base of French Empire