Transcript Age of Exploration

Age of Exploration:
Focus- Commercial
Innovations
Discovery
► 1492
Christopher Columbus discovers the new
land. His first trip is to Hispaniola and Cuba
► Amerigo Vespucci was an Italian mapmaker who
claimed Columbus had discovered a “New
World” & America was named in his honor
Spain and Portugal
► Two
biggest exploring
nations
► Began fighting over land
in New World
► Asked Pope to solve
dispute
► The Pope divided the
New World in half with
a line
Pope Alexander VI
Pope’s Solution: Draw a Line
► West
of line is Spain’s/East of line is Portugal’s
The Treaty of Tordesillas (1494)
► Became
obvious Spain
got much more land
► Moved the line west a
little.
Slavery in the New World
►
Triangular trade
 Set of trades between three
points
 The most famous was
sugar/rum/slaves
►
Begins the transatlantic
slave trade:
 African chiefs sell members
of other tribes for guns &
alcohol
 10 –24 million Africans were
brought to America
 1 in 5 did not survive the
journey (Called the “Middle
Passage” because it was the
middle leg of the triangle)
Colombian Exchange
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many products were
carried to and from the
New World like:
to the New World:
horses, cows, wheat,
rice, & oranges
from the New World:
corn, potatoes,
tobacco, cacao
(chocolate)
Europeans carried
unknown diseases to
the native Americans
which killed millions
(including Small Pox)
ESSENTIAL QUESTION
► What
new economic institutions and
innovations developed as a result of the
expanding trade networks?
► ANSWER: New economic systems emerge
to control and expand trade
Changing Ways of Life
Commercial Revolution
► new
business methods for
investing money, speeding the
flow of wealth, & reducing risks:
result of Age of Exploration
► rise of free enterprise (modern
capitalism), economic system in
which money is invested by
individuals in business to make
profits
More Commercial Revolution
►
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people who wanted to invest in exploration combined
resources in joint-stock companies, or organizations
that sold stock & shared in profits & losses
rise of entrepreneurs, or individuals who combined
money, ideas, raw materials, & labor to make goods &
services
Note that Capitalism goes against some of the ideas of
Mercantilism