Transcript What would have motivated people more than 500 years ago

Cicero
History Beyond The Textbook
The Age of Exploration
500 A.D. – 1609 A.D.
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What would have motivated people
more than 500 years ago to get in a
boat and sail around the world?
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The Three G’s!!!!
• Gold – They wanted to get rich!
• God – They wanted to spread
Christianity around the world!
• Glory – They wanted to become
famous!
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The Spice of Life
•A thousand years ago people had no
refrigeration and food often spoiled easily.
With no way to improve the flavor of their
food, the people of Europe were desperate
for a solution.
Nutmeg
Fruit
The Spice
Islands
•During the Crusades (1096), knights from
Europe were exposed to new spices from
Asia.
•While Europeans could buy spices from
Venetian traders (who had monopolized the
trade), they had to pay very high prices.
*Pepper was worth its weight in gold!!
Pepper
Plant
Cinnamon
(Tropical Evergreen)
•Determined to secure these spices for the
people of Europe, explorers set out to find a
water route to Asia.
•Many of the spices came from the Maluku
Islands or “Spice Islands” in present day
Indonesia.
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TOOLS OF THE TRADE
How did early explorers find their
way?
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Navigational
Tools
Astrolabe
Magnetic Compass
Invented by the Greeks, it
measured the altitude of a
heavenly body above the
horizon.
Instrument that uses a magnetized
needle that points north. Invented
by the Chinese more than 2,000
years ago.
Back-Staff or Quadrant
Measured the angle of the sun to the
horizon. This improved instrument meant
that mariners no longer had to stare into
the sun. Invented in 1594 by John Davis.
Hourglass
Measures time
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Cross-Staff
Measured the angle of the sun to
the horizon. Invented by Claudius
Ptolemy, who lived around 150 A.D.
The Caravel
• The caravel is a light
sailing ship that was
developed by the
Portuguese in the late
1400's.
• The caravel was an
improvement on older
ships because it could sail
very fast for the time
(about 5 miles per hour)
and also sail into the wind!
• They were about 75 feet
long, 25 feet wide and
could carry roughly 130
tons of cargo.
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The Galleon
“Ship of the Line”
• A galleon was a large,
multi-decked sailing
ship used primarily by
the nations of Europe
from the 16th to 18th
centuries.
• Galleons were an
evolution of the
caravel and carrack.
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Early Explorers
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St. Brendan
484 A.D.
Historians are unsure of what
land St. Brendan actually saw.
While many claim it could have
been America, it is impossible
to know for sure.
St. Brendan of Clonfert was born in
Ireland around 484 and went on to
become a priest. He is said to have
traveled to the west, discovering a new
land with vegetation. Brendan named it
the Isle of the Blessed. He also claimed
to have been attacked by a sea
monster while on this voyage. His
stories would fuel the fears of the open
ocean and inspire map makers to place
warnings on maps of the Atlantic. When
Columbus set out in 1492, one of the
maps he carried showed Brendan’s
Island located in the western Atlantic
Ocean.
Leif Erikson
c. 980-1020
This statue of Leif Erikson has him wearing
a helmet with horns. In reality, while Vikings
are often depicted this way, their helmets
did not really have horns. The horns
probably came from their European victims
who depicted the Vikings as devils.
• Son of Erik the Red.
• Sailed to the East coast
of North America to a
place he named Vinland
(probably present day
Newfoundland) around
1000 A.D.
• The Viking’s settlement
failed due to attacks
from native people.
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Marco Polo
ca. 1254-1324
• As a teenager Marco
Polo traveled to China
(then known as Cathay)
with his father and uncle.
• After his return to Venice
Polo collected the stories
of his travels into a book,
The Travels of Marco
Polo.
• According to legend, Polo
introduced pasta to Italy.
• His stories of the East
would inspire future
European explorers like
Christopher Columbus
and Vasco Da Gama.
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Cheng Ho (Zheng He)
1371-1433
• Cheng Ho sailed from China
to many places throughout the
South Pacific, Indian Ocean,
Taiwan, Persian Gulf and
Africa in seven epic voyages
from 1405 to 1433.
• This was 80 years before
Columbus's voyages.
• Cheng Ho’s flagship was
about 400 feet long compared
to the Santa Maria, which was
75 feet long.
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Cheng Ho’s Expeditions
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Prince Henry the Navigator
1394-1460
• Prince Henry ruled the country
of Portugal.
• He established a school in 1418
to teach navigation,
astronomical skills and
mapmaking to sailors.
• He commissioned a number of
voyages to map the West coast
of Africa.
• As a result of these voyages,
the Portuguese began to trade
for African slaves and
discovered a route to Asia.
• While Prince Henry was a
champion of sailors and
explorers, he became horribly
sea sick whenever he tried to go
out on the water.
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Christopher Columbus
1451-1506
Replicas of Columbus’ ships
• Italian explorer who sailed for
Spain in search of a western
water route to Asia.
• Columbus left from Palos,
Spain on August 3, 1492 with
three ships; Nina, Pinta and
his flag ship the Santa Maria.
• A lookout named Rodrigo de
Triana spotted land (probably
San Salvador or modern day
Watlings Island) at 2:00 a.m.
on October 12, 1492. Thinking
he had landed in India, he
called the native Taino people
“Indians”.
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Columbus went on to make three
more voyages to the New World.
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Amerigo Vespucci
1454-1512
• Italian explorer who mapped
the coastline of South America
and explored the Amazon
River.
• German mapmakers thought
so highly of his detailed maps,
they named the new land in his
honor.
• It was do to the Germans skill
in the use of the printing press,
which had been invented by a
German man named Johannes
Gutenberg in 1455, that maps
referring to the new world as
America (The sound “go” is
pronounced as “ca” in
German) became common.
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Martin Waldseemuller’s 1507 Map
This is the first known map to label the New World as America.
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John Cabot
c. 1451-1499
• In 1497 Cabot sailed
from Bristol, England in
the Matthew to what is
now eastern Canada.
• In May of 1498, he and
300 crew members set
out from Bristol, on a
second voyage, but
were never heard from
again.
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Vasco de Balboa
1475-1519
• Spanish explorer who
traveled throughout
Central America.
• The first European to
set eyes on the
western ocean, which
he named “Pacific”,
or tranquil.
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Juan Ponce de Leon
1460-1521
Spanish explorer who had become well
known for his bravery in battle during
the Spanish war to drive out the
Muslims from Spain.
Later in life he traveled to the New
World with the hopes of becoming rich.
After hearing of a wondrous fountain
that could restore a person’s youth, de
Leon set out through what is today
Florida in order to find the famed
“Fountain of Youth”.
Ponce de Leon actually made most of
his money capturing native people to be
sold into slavery. His practice of setting
war dogs (bull mastiffs) on natives led to
his removal by Spanish authorities.
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Hernando Cortez’
1485-1547
Spanish conquistador who
conquered the Aztec empire with
the help of native allies and the
fact that the Aztecs believed him
to be the god Quetzalcoatl.
However, modern historians are
beginning to question this.
The Spaniards also brought
European diseases with them
such as smallpox, which wiped
out millions of Native Americans
in a span of fifty years.
Tenochtitlan
(Aztec Capital)
Aztec Temple
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Ferdinand Magellan
1480-1521
• Spanish explorer who
led the expedition that
was the first to
circumnavigate the
globe (sail around the
world). 1519-1522
• Unfortunately,
Magellan was
captured by natives in
what is now the
Philippines and eaten.
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Giovanni Verrazzano
1485-1528
• Italian navigator who sailed
for France.
• In 1524, he explored the
northeast coast of North
America from Cape Fear,
North Carolina to Maine
while searching for a
Northwest passage to Asia.
• The Verrazzano Narrows
Bridge, a suspension
bridge that spans New
York Harbor, was named
for Verrazzano.
Verrazzano Narrows Bridge
New York
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Francisco Pizarro
1478-1541
• Spanish conquistador
who traveled through
much of the Pacific coast
of America along Peru.
• He conquered the Incan
empire in 1533.
• He was later
assassinated by some of
Cortez’s men, who
wanted the Incan
treasure for themselves.
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Jacques Cartier
1491-1557
• French explorer who led
three expeditions to
Canada, in 1534, 1535,
and 1541.
• He was searching for the
Northwest Passage (an
all water route to Asia).
• Cartier named Canada;
"Kanata" means village
or settlement in the
Huron-Iroquois language.
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Hernando De Soto
c. 1500-1542
• Spanish explorer who
was the first European
to explore Florida and
the southeastern US.
• De Soto helped Pizarro
conquer the Incan
empire and is believed
to be the one who
strangled the Incan
ruler Atahualpa.
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Francisco de Coronado
1510-1554
• A Spanish explorer, he
was the first European
to explore North
America's Southwest.
• He searched fruitlessly
for treasure that was
rumored to exist in
northern Mexico: the
fabled seven Golden
Cities of Cibola.
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Juan Cabrillo
1499-1543
• In 1542, Cabrillo became
the first European to
explore the Californian
coast.
• He died in 1543 after a
fight with local Indians
near what is today Santa
Barbara, California.
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Samuel de Champlain
1567-1635
• French explorer and
navigator who mapped
much of northeastern North
America and started a
settlement in Quebec.
• Champlain also discovered
the lake named for him
(Lake Champlain, on the
border of northern New
York state and Vermont,
named in 1609.
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Henry Hudson
1565-1611
• English explorer and
navigator who explored
parts of the Arctic Ocean
and northeastern North
America.
• Hudson was also searching
for a Northwest Passage.
• The Hudson River, Hudson
Strait, and Hudson Bay are
named in his honor.
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