Age of Exploration Flashcards

Flashcards about the Age of Exploration

Geographic Explorations

Traveling to new territories or unknown spaces with the purpose of discovering their geographic configuration.

Era of Discoveries

A historical period from the early 15th century to the early 17th century marked by European exploration that led to increased global trade.

Columbian Exchange

The exchange of plants, animals, foods, human populations, diseases, and culture between the Old World (Europe, Asia, and Africa) and the New World (Americas and Australia).

Economic Transformations (15th Century Europe)

Rapid population growth leading to a greater demand for goods and the emergence of machines and the service sector.

Social Transformations (15th Century Europe)

The rise of new social classes like the bourgeoisie and the proletariat due to the new economic system.

Political Transformations (15th Century Europe)

The formation and consolidation of national states replacing the feudal system of the Middle Ages.

Religious Transformations (15th Century Europe)

The breakup of religious unity in the West, dividing Christianity into Protestants and Catholics.

Cultural Transformations (15th Century Europe)

The revaluation of Greco-Latin culture from antiquity, representing an era of splendor.

Compass

Instrument that revolutionized navigation by no longer needing to depend on the sun or the polar star.

Printing Press

Eliminated the old customs of the ancient and middle ages.

Astrolabe

Instrument used to measure the height of the polar star above the horizon - essential for navigation during the 15th and 16th centuries.

Geographic Chart

Maps created from the 13th century onward by Italians and Catalans, indicating rivers, bays, port locations and obstacles.

Economic Causes of Geographic Discoveries

Venice and Genoa controlled Mediterranean trade, bringing goods from the Orient to Europe.

Scientific Causes of Geographic Discoveries

Helped discoveries greatly.

Cultural Causes of Geographic Discoveries

Near the end of the Middle Ages, people began to affirm that the earth was a sphere.

Economic consequences of geographic discoveries

Europeans could now reach the lands of the Orient by going around Africa; used to obrain raw materials, species and silks.

Social consequences of geographic discoveries

Power of the bourgeoisie appeared, and miscegenation arose.

Scientific consequences of geographic discoveries

The visión of the world changed. Medicine had new advances with the knowledege and use of plants.

Political consequences of geographic discoveries

Colonialism arose.

Portuguese explorations

Under the command of Enrique el Navegante, they discovered the island of Madeira and started colonizing it in 1424.

Bartolomé Diaz

Portugal's Bartolomé Diaz arrived at the Cape of Good Hope in 1487 and discovered the passage between the Atlantic and Indian oceans.

Spanish explorations

Spain began its exploration a few years later than Portugal, with the Genoese sailor Christopher Columbus.

Capitulaciones de Santa Fe

Agreement signed on April 17, 1492, between Columbus and the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, Fernando and Elizabeth.

Columbus First Voyage

Columbus departed from Spain in August 1492 and made landfall on Guanahani Island (Bahamas archipelago) on October 12, 1492.

English explorations

Advanced along the African Atlantic coast, founding forts and ports that rivaled the Portuguese.

Henry Hudson

Henry Hudson explored the northern reaches of North America.

Francis Drake

Francis Drake became the second person to circumnavigate the world.

James Cook

James Cook claimed Australia for the British Empire.