TR

The Age of Exploration: Portugal & Spain

Portugal

  • Prince Henry the Navigator set up a naval research center in 1420.
  • He ordered the West Coast of Africa to be mapped, leading Portugal to be the first to explore Africa.
  • In 1488, Bartholomeu Dias explored the southern tip of Africa.
  • In 1497, Vasco da Gama round the Cape of Good Hope and sailed to India.  He found the all water route to Asia first!
  • The Line of Demarcation (1493) was an imaginary line running from the North to South Pole.  Spain could have what was to the west, Portugal to the East.
  • Pedro Cabral claimed the land that is now Brazil in 1500.
  • Ferdinand Magellan was the first to sail around the tip of South America.
    • Given credit for circumnavigating the globe, although he died before they completed the voyage.

Spain

  • Christopher Columbus
    • An Italian sailor who found monetary support from the king and queen of Spain.
    • Believed he could reach Asia by sailing west.
    • Used the Ptolemaic map that was over a thousand years old.
    • Sailed west and landed in current day San Salvador (Bahamas).
    • Believed he was in the West Indies so he called the Native American people “Indians.”
  • Spanish conquistadors (soldiers)  used force to take control of the Caribbean Islands, Central and South America, the Southwest region of the United States, and Florida.   \n