Age of exploration study guide

why people explore

• find resources

• make profit

• expand economy

• more land to take over / expand territory

• power

• fear of the unknown

• trade

disruption to trade

• Europe and Asia disrupted

• Mongol empire started to decline and lost power to ottoman empire and Ming dynasty

• vulnerable to attack and more dangerous to travel

economic impact

• drove up prices of Asian silk and spice

• prices went up due to supply and demand

• Europe saw this as an opportunity, securing supply of trade from Asia, making a fortune

cartography

• art and science of map making

• representing a geographical area, usually flat, map or chart

problems travelling by sea

• ships were slow, difficult to steer

• easy to get lost

• bad weather can end journey

• prevented Europeans from establishing new trade

new inventions of sea travel

• designing ships that are faster and easier to manoeuvre

• navigational instruments, by Greeks, Arabs, Chinese

• compass - tells you your direction

• astrolabe - estimates your location using sun or stars

new trade routes for wealth

• increase consumerism

• accumulation for wealth

• race for new trade routes

race to new world

• Portugal and Spain eager to find new trade routes to east

• funding large expeditions

• motivation for wealthy merchants

• England and France joined the race to the new world

Portugal exploration

• silk road brought consumerism, wealth and glory, making Portugal want to find a route and eventually being the first country seeking an alternate route

• in 1487 - 1498 Bartholomeus Dias and Vassco de Gama rounded the southern tip of Africa, which the ships started arriving in India

• they didn’t want Europe to follow them so they tried to control eastern sea routes to Asia

why pope was involved

he created the treaty of Tordesilla, which spilt the world in half (half to Spain and the other to Portugal)

Christopher colombus

 

• 1485 – no one sponsored him because they thought he couldn’t go north because they thought the earth was flat 

• 1492 – queen Isabella and king Ferdinan of Spain funded his trip, where he thought he was in India, but he was in the Caribbean  

• 1495 – more trips to the Caribbean  

• 1506 – he dies thinking he travelled to Asia  

prince Henry the navigator

• He funded expeditions to spread Christianity and for Profit in 1400s 

• didn’t know how to sail, instead built a navigational school

• he died in 1460 

• he paved a way for new explorers so when he died people had more Knowledge on exploring 

Bartholomeu Dias

 

• First to sail around the southern tip of Africa, which helped establish Portugal as an imperial power in the 1400s 

• he was born in 1450 

• in 1497 king John Chose him to continue exploring of African coast and his goal were to go to India by sea and to find the great Christian ruler who led a kingdom in Africa 

• his crew were the first to discover the cape of great hope  

• died in 1500 

Giovanni Caboto

• sailed from England to Canada 

• King of England funded him to find a route to Asia 

• he made three trips, one in 1496, but there was bad weather, second in 1497, which was successful and claimed the land and the last trip, 5 boats were taken and only one made it 

• he found cod near newfoundland

• Paved the way for the British to make colonies in north America  

Ferdinand Magellan

 

• In around 1494, he told the king that there was a westward route to the spice island, which the king made him the Capitan of Spanish and Armada and gave him resources he needed 

• in 1519, they headed SW but when the weather got bad, the crew members or Spaniards resentment to a Portuguese captain escalate into him causing a mutiny to happen 

• One of the ships went home but they continued into the pacific 

• Rest of crew went to the spice islands 

• one ruler asked for help to attack another ruler, he agreed but died while battling 

• one of his ships made it around the whole world

Giovanni Da Verrazanno

• used to be a pirate for France 

• served for French king (Francis 1) 

• When he set off, he had 4 boats but 2 of them ended up sinking 

• Discovered New York Bay, where he found indigenous boats  

• He might have been eaten by cannibals  

• first European to explore Atlantic coast 

monarch

• ruler that came through bloodline

• usually a king or queen

• kingdom

• for life or until abdication

monarchs exploration

God, glory, gold

Glory

• wanted to be the best

• being the richest

• having established trade routes by sea that were new

• first is the best

gold

• trading and renaissance = luxury goods

• increase in price and demand

• low supply

• Europe ran out of gold

• not limited to only gold (other valuable things too)

God

• to spread Christianity to the lands they visit

• the bible said that people need to spread Christianity

• Christians were scared how Muslims took over Constantinople so they had more pressure to continue spreading it so they won’t get “taken over”

expansionism

• increasing a countries size by expanding economically or physically

• can involve expanding a countries reach for resources

• not taking over, taking resources

imperialism

• extending power and dominion

• gaining political and economical control of territory and people

• wanting to take over and have influence over those people

colonialism

• starting colonies

• placing shelters

• exploiting their economy

• full or partial control of another country

consumerism

• something to buy and consume

• preoccupation of society acquisition of consumer goods

• supply and demand

supply, demand, price

• demand up, price up, supply low

• trade and renaissance = luxury goods

ethnocentrism

• judging someone based on their culture in comparison to ours

price of goods along silk road

Arab merchant buys goods from India → sells it to someone in a big trading hub (Constantinople) → Italian merchant buys it and brings it to Venice → Europeans can buy it → price went up x2000 because passed down so much