Transcript The Age of Exploration - Fort Thomas Independent Schools

The Age of Exploration
Causes of Exploration
• Renaissance ideas of humanism
and intellectual progress
• God: Reformation and CounterReformation create desires to
convert people to religions
• Gold: Desire for Luxury Goods and
Wealth
• Glory: Could become famous (and
rich!) off of exploration
• Advances in Technology
• Better navigation devices (compass)
• Shipbuilding improved (larger,
faster ships)
The Caravel & the
astrolabe
Who Started the Age of Exploration?
• Portugal
• Prince Henry the Navigator
funded many expeditions to the
Atlantic Ocean and Africa
• Main Goal: Find a water route
around Africa to India
• Bartolomeu Dias
• Vasco de Gama
• Pedro Alvares Cabral
• Portuguese empire included:
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Ports in Africa
Port of Macao (China)
Port of Goa (India)
Brazil
Who Started the Age of Exploration?
Spain
• Supported by King
Ferdinand and Queen
Isabella
• Main Goal: Wanted to seek
new routes to the East
(India and China)
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Christopher Columbus
Vasco Nunez de Balboa
Ferdinand Magellan
Spanish empire:
• Philippeans, the majority
of the Americas & Pacific
Islands
Treaty of Tordesillas (1494)
Who else was exploring?
Britain
• Looking for northwest
passage to India
• Discovers Hudson Bay
(New England)
• More serious in 1600s
• Colonized eastern
coast of USA & the
Caribbean
The Netherlands
• Won independence •
(1648)
• Dutch East India
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Company
• Colonized much of
eastern US & Brazil
• Ousted Portugal from
Indonesia
France
Crossed Atlantic in
1543
Settled in Canada &
northern US
Consequences of the
Age of Exploration
• Colonialism
• one country taking over and
settling in land in another
region
• Starts a larger trend of
Europeans moving to the
Americas
• Columbian Exchange
• Global exchange of goods,
plants, animals and diseases
between the Americas and
Europe
The Columbian Exchange
From Europe, Africa, and Asia to
the Americas
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Cattle
Chickens
Donkeys
Horses
Pigs
Bananas
Sugar
Coffee
Diseases: Smallpox,
Influenza, Measles, Cholera
From the Americas to Europe
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Guinea Pigs
Turkeys
Beans
Chocolate
Corn
Potatoes
Pecans
Pineapples
Rubber
Tobacco
Tomatoes
Vanilla
Results of the Columbian Exchange
• Crops native to Americas
became key parts of the
European diet (i.e. Potato in
Ireland)
• Improved health of Europeans
and Asians  Increased life
expectancy and population
growth
• New economic activities in
Americas (coffee plantations,
cattle ranches)
• Introduction of new diseases
dramatically decreases Native
American population
Mercantilism
• Theory that a state’s power depended on its
wealth
• Mercantilism fueled colonialism under the
belief that a large empire was the key to
wealth
• Sought to export more than import- balance
of trade
2 ways to gain wealth/power
1. Extract gold/silver from your (or others who you
have conquered) mines
2. Sell more goods to other countries to get their
gold
- Balance of Trade: difference in value between imports
and exports over time
Additional Consequences of
the Age of Exploration
• Impact on Native
American Population
• New diseases killed
millions of Native
Americans
• 80% of population
died
• Colonization leads to
need for more workers
• Creation of the
Atlantic Slave Trade
• Caused by decline in
Native American
population
• Needed a labor force
• 15-20 million Africans
to Americas
Primary Source Document
Christopher Columbus
• Who was this letter written to? Why would
Columbus write a letter to them?
• What type of language (or word choice) did
Columbus use and do you think that the language
you use is important?
• What types of things were discussed or highlighted
in Columbus’ letter?
In-Class Group Exercise
• In groups of four (or less), come up with a way to ask a king or
queen for permission & funds to explore the New World
• Be SPECIFIC
• Name a specific King or Queen
• Name the country you are sailing for & where you want to go
• Give dates if applicable
• You can…
• Write a LETTER: provide the correct structures of a formal
letter…remember you’re writing to a KING or QUEEN!
• Write a JOURNAL/DIARY entry describing your goals, hopes,
aspirations or observation about an exploration
• Create a POSTER or ADVERTISEMENT about the benefits of
exploration
• Other ideas are welcom! Be creative (Just okay an idea with
me first)