Transcript Age of Exploration - Cherokee County Schools

Age of Exploration
Chapter 19, Section 1
Why Explore?
God, Glory, and Gold
 God: As a result of the Crusades Christian Europeans felt
sense of duty to spread Christianity
 Glory: Desired to give glory to country/leader and enlarge
territory; beginnings of nationalism
 Gold: Desired to grow wealthy; sought gold and other
costly goods such as spices, silks, and furs. Also wanted to
cut out middle men in trade process.
Why was Exploration Possible?
• Funding from monarchs that wanted to gain territory
and use of raw materials
• New sailing technologies: astrolabe, caravel, compass
• Desire for knowledge from new and unknown areas
Technologies
The Astrolabe: an ancient
astronomical computer used to
show how the sky looks in a
specific place at a given time
and to calculate latitude.
The Caravel: Triangular sails solved
the dilemma of sailing against the
wind that plagued early European
travels.
Map of the Known World, 1484
Portugal Leads the Way
• Advantageous geographic location, strong
government support, and use of technologies
allowed Portugal to be leader of early exploration
• First European country to establish trading outposts
along the west coast of Africa
• Heavy support for exploration came from Prince
Henry the Navigator
Prince Henry the Navigator
Prince Henry
• Never personally sailed
• Was highly interested in both gaining wealth and
spreading Christianity through exploration
• Funded a school for navigators and hopeful
explorers where they could learn skills and perfect
mapmaking and shipbuilding
• Put himself in debt funding 14 voyages to Africa
Famous Portuguese Explorers
• Bartolomeu Dias: Rounded tip of Africa in 1488,
explored SE coast of Africa
• Vasco da Gama: Explored east coast of Africa, in
1498 reached Calicut in India, giving Europeans the
first direct sea route
Spain’s Role in Exploration
• Christopher Columbus: 1492 convinced Spanish
monarchs to try to find their own route to Asia by
sailing west across the Atlantic; landed in Caribbean.
• Both Spain and Portugal thought his landing spot
was in the East Indies, leading to conflict.
• Results: opened Western Hemisphere for
colonization; increased tensions between Spain and
Portugal.
Treaty of Tordesillas
• Following Columbus’s voyage and landing in the “East
Indies” Portugal and Spain disputed what lands belonged
to which country
• In 1493 Pope Alexander VI suggested drawing an
imaginary line through the Atlantic to determine what
lands belonged to each nation
• The Line of Demarcation was marked and agreed upon in
the Treaty of Tordesillas
• Spain would have all lands west of the line and Portugal
was granted lands east of the line
Map of Treaty of Tordesillas
Indian Ocean Trading Empires
• As the Europeans discovered water routes to Asia,
they scrambled to set up trading posts in key
locations
• Fighting erupted between Europeans and native
peoples over the building of trading posts
• Establishing trading posts allowed goods to be
brought back to Europe at steep discounts, making
them affordable to more people
European Expansion
• By 1514 Portugal had established trading ports at
Hormuz, Goa, and Malacca, controlling the valuable
spice trade
• The Netherlands and England challenged Portugal’s
dominance Asian trade
• The Dutch and Spanish eventually took over much
of the areas originally controlled by Portugal
East India Companies
• The British, Dutch, and French set up agreements
that would ensure close relations between the
governments in Europe and the areas they took over
in Asia; also monitored trade.
• Dutch East India Company: 1602-1798, Indonesia,
Malaya, Sri Lanka, Spice Islands
• British East India Company: 1600-1873, India
East India Companies, cont.
• French East India Company: 1664-1769, islands off
the coast of Africa
Major Explorers
• See Handout
• Questions for Review:
• Why did exploration occur?
• Why was exploration possible?
• What were some of the outcomes of exploration?