Transcript exploring the americas

EXPLORING THE
AMERICAS
or
Everything I needed to know was in
Italian
MARCO
POLO
• An explorer who traveled to Asia
• An author who wrote a book about his
journey
– Travels
– Written from 1296 -97
– Inspired Columbus and others to journey to
these lands 200 years later
Centers of Growing Trade
• Venice
• Genoa
• Pisa
•
•
•
•
Spices
Silks
Perfumes
Precious stones
RENAISSANCE
• Rebirth
• Period of renewed interest in classical
Greek and Roman learning
• Spread throughout Europe in the 1400s
• Encouraged Europeans
– to pursue new ideas and challenges
– set the stage for exploration and discovery
THINK
• Why do you think Western European
explorers found Asia so interesting?
Powerful Nations Emerge
• Development of large nation-states in
Western Europe helped spark foreign
trade and travel outside the region
• Monarchies of Spain, Portugal, England,
and France looked for ways to increase
power and wealth
• WHY?
• Better maps and navigational instruments
helped with accuracy
• Astrolabe
– Used to determine latitude
at sea. Islamic societies had
been using this technology
since 800 A.D.
Compass
Larger and sturdier sailing vessels, such as
the caravel, enabled sailors to travel faster
and carry more people, cargo, and food.
THINK
• How was this technology used?
AFRICAN KINGDOMS
• Ghana
– Huge trade empire between 400 and 1100
– Gold and salt
– When power declined, new states emerge
• Mali
– Capital was Timbuktu
– Important Islamic center
– Greatest king was Mansa Musa (1312-1337)
– Made a pilgrimage to Makkah (Mecca) the
Muslim holy city
• Songhai Empire
– Rose in the late 1400s
– Largest in history of West Africa
– Ruler was Askiya Muhammad
• Encouraged trade with Europe and Asia
• Introduced to his country a legal system, a system
of government, and schools
• Empire fell in the late 1500s when Moroccans
attacked its trade centers
• See page 41 of textbook.
• In which region of Africa did the three
trading kingdoms develop? Why?
SEEKING NEW TRADE ROUTES
• Portuguese were the leaders of early
exploration.
– Hoped to find new route to China and India
– Also, more direct way to West African gold
– Prince Henry of Portugal (Henry the Navigator) set up
a center for exploration for scientists to share
knowledge of shipbuilding and sailing
– Ships sailed south along the Gold Coast (West Africa)
trading for gold and ivory
– Began buying slaves in the mid-1400s
• 1487 – Bartholomeu Dias explored the
southernmost part of Africa
• Named this cape the Cape of Good Hope
• King of Portugal hoped the passage
around the southern tip would lead to a
new route to India
• 1497 – Vasco de Gama sailed around the
Cape of Good Hope, visited East African
cities, and reached India in 1498
And now for something completely
different . . .
• Vikings reached North America and
established settlements in Iceland and
Greenland in the 800s and 900s
• Leif Eriksson explored land west of
Greenland known as Vinland about the
year 1000
• Historians think Vinland was North
America
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS
• Queen Isabella of Spain sponsored Chris
on his first voyage in August of . . .
• Set out with _______ ships to find a route
to _________
• On October 12, ______, he spotted land
• Named it ____ ________ for Spain
• Thought he had reached the East Indies
• Hmmmmmm. Should have had a garvin
• Chris made three additional voyages in
1493, 1498, and 1502
• Explored the Caribbean Islands of
Hispaniola, Cuba, and Jamaica
• Sailed along the coasts of Central America
and northern South America
• Claimed all these lands for Spain
• Treaty of Tordesillas ( Portugal and Spain)
clarified line of demarcation between their
lands
• Amerigo Vespucci mapped South
America’s coastline in 1499
– Concluded South America was a continent
and not part of Asia
– European geographers called the continent
America in honor of Vespucci
• Vasco Nunez de Balboa claimed the
Pacific and adjoining lands for Spain
• Ferdinand Magellan
– Sailed from Spain in 1519
– Found a passage around South America to
the Pacific
• See page 42 of the World Atlas
– Named it the Strait of Magellan
– Was killed in an island battle along the way
– Small number of his crew made it all the way
back to Spain
– Became the first to circumnavigate the world