Transcript Age of Exploration Presentation

Age of Discovery
How did explorers and conquistadors impact the age of discovery and
expansion?
Reasons for Exploration
 Marco Polo: fascinated by
Marco Polo’s account of his
travels to the court of Kublai
Khan and the exotic East
Reasons for Exploration
 Ottoman Empire: made traveling to
the East by land difficult in the
fourteenth-century. Europeans wanted
a route by sea
Reasons for Exploration
 God: the desire to spread the Catholic faith to native
peoples
 Gold: the desire for wealth was a large part of European
expansion. Merchants, adventurers, and government
officials hoped to find precious metals in, and expand trade
with the East, especially trade in spices
 Glory: Adventure comprised another motive for European
expansion
Reasons for Exploration
 European Monarchs: had expanded their power and
resources to a point of being able to support ambitious
expansion by the fifteenth century
 Technology: reached a level of technology that made a
series of regular, long voyages possible
Compass
 helped to figure out which
direction sailors were
traveling North, South, East,
or West
 also how many degrees they
were sailing
Maps
 The Gridded Map
 measured longitude and latitude
 helped sailors:

measure the distance between
one place and another

find routes to places they traveled
to or wanted to discover
Sextant
 measure the angle of an
astral body from the horizon
 allowed navigators to solve
half the problem of fixing a
position at sea
 could determine vessel's
latitude
Astrolabe
 an angle-measuring tool
 measure a star(sun)
 had more accuracy on dry
land than on the boat
Sailing
Caravel:
 a boat with a rounded
bottom with room for lots of
cargo that would be useful
for carrying goods for trade
 favored for its speed and
maneuverability
Sailing
Lateen Sail:
a triangular shaped sail
much better than a square sail
lighter in the air
easier for sailors to steer
for coastal sailing
Zheng He
 Sailed from China
around 1405-1433
 Led 7 voyages that
went to Southeast Asia
and eastern Africa
 After the 7th voyage
China withdrew and
went into isolation
Zheng He
Prince Henry the Navigator
 Brother to the King of Portugal
 Set up a school for navigation at
Cape St. Vincent in 1418
 Hired experts to teach regardless of
their faith or nationality
 Spent 40 years studying and
teaching cartography, ship building,
instrument use, and geography
Bartholomew Dias
 Sailed from Portugal
around 1487
 First to sail around the
Cape of Good hope,
Africa
Christopher Columbus
 Sailed from Spain
around 1492-1502
 Discovered the
“New” World
 Landed in Caribbean
Islands and South
America
Christopher Columbus
Vasco da Gama
 Sailed from Portugal
around 1497-1498
 First European to reach
India by sea
John Cabot
 Sailed from England
around 1497-1498
 Looked for waterways
to Pacific along the
North American coast
Amerigo Vespucci
 Sailed from Spain
around 1499
 Scouted the coast of
North and South
America
 America is named after
this explorer
Vasco Nunez de Balboa
 Sailed from Spain
around 1513
 Found the Pacific
Ocean by crossing
Panama in Central
America
Juan Ponce de Leon
 Sailed from Spain
around 1513
 Searched for
“Fountain of Youth”
 based in St. Augustine,
Florida
Hernando Cortez
 Sailed from Spain
around 1519-1521
 Defeated the Aztecs in
Mexico they thought
he was a god
Ferdinand Magellan
 Sailed from Spain
around 1519-1522
 Led first exploration
that sailed around the
world
 His crew made it even
though Magellan died
during the trip
Francisco Pizarro
 Sailed from Spain
around 1531
 Conquered Incas in
Peru
Jacques Cartier
 Sailed from France
around 1534-1536
 Explored St. Lawrence
seaway looking for a
waterway to the Pacific
Hernando de Soto
 Sailed from Spain
around 1539-1542
 Searched for gold from
the Carolinas to
Oklahoma
Sir Francis Drake
 Sailed from England
around 1579-1580
 Stole treasure from
Spanish ships
 Also sailed around the
world
Sir Walter Raleigh
 Sailed from England
around 1587
 sponsored first English
settlement in Roanoke
Samuel de Champlain
 Sailed from France
around 1604-1606
 Established fur trade
settlements in Canada
 A map maker and
sailor
James Cook
 Sailed from England
around 1769 & 1770
 Claimed New Zealand
and parts of Australia
for England
Summarizer
 Think-Pair-Share: Describe the impact of the European
explorers with the world.