Transcript Europe Explores the Globe

Europe Explores
the Globe
Age of Exploration
Notes
I.) Origins of overseas exploration
A. Reasons for voyages beginning in 1400’s:
1. economic
2. religious reasons
3. spirit of adventure
II.) The Explorers
A. Portugal takes the lead and heads east!
1. Henry the Navigator
- 1420 explores west coast of Africa
- discovers new source for gold
2. Bartholomeu Dias
- 1488 rounds Cape of Good Hope (Africa)
3. Vasco da Gama
- 1498 rounds Cape of Good Hope and cuts
across to India (spices)
B. Spain takes a route west!
1. Christopher Columbus
- travels west to find sea route to Asia
- 1492 discovers Hispaniola and Cuba
2. Ferdinand Magellan
- 1519 sets sail to find passage through America
- 1520 passes through “Strait of Magellan”
- first person to circumnavigate the globe
C. Treaty of Tordesillas: signed 1494; line in Atlantic giving Spain
trade rights to route to Americas & trade rights to Africa
1. Amerigo Vespucci (Portugal & Spain)
- crossed Atlantic several times
between 1497-1504
- argued land was not Asia, called it
“New World”
- mapmakers begin calling land
“America”
D. Britain begins to build an empire!
1. 1500’s = busy with problems at home
2. 1600’s = begin to explore and colonize
E. Queen Elizabeth I
1. wants to expand Britain’s power overseas
2. grants a charter to the British East India Company
- set up trading posts, expand influence, defend interests
F. John Cabot (1497-98)
1. explores Americas (New England coast)
for England
G. Sea Dogs: English sea captains/pirates/traders who sail
Atlantic challenging Spain & Portugal for sea trade
Examples: Sir Francis Drake
Sir Walter Raleigh
Sir John Hawkins
H. Henry Hudson
1. explores Americas for NW Passage
& discovers Hudson Bay & River
I. British Settlements in America
1. Jamestown (1607)
2. Plymouth (1620)