Chapter 2
The Age of Exploration
(1350-1550)
Chapter 2
The Age of Exploration
Section 1
Europeans Set Sail
The European Economy Grows
Black Death – plague swept through
Europe, killing approx. 30 million
Created a shortage of workers
Commercial Revolution – great change
in European economy; merchants and
craftspeople became more aggressive
about making profit
cities became rich trading centers
The European Economy Grows
(continued)
Capital – money or property used to
make more money; merchant families
wanted more – higher prices = more
profit
Medici family opened banks in Florence to
make loans to monarchs, nobles and other
merchants; bankers gained increasing influence
around Europe
Joint-stock companies – investors
share profits and losses of company;
helped merchants raise money
(reduced individual risk)
The Renaissance
 Renaissance – rebirth of the arts and learning of ancient
Greece and Rome; began in Italy mid-1300s, spread
through Europe through early 1600s
 Europeans used new wealth to support education and the
arts
 Belief that human beings could achieve anything
motivated Europeans to explore the rest of the world
 Leonardo da Vinci – “renaissance man;” Mona Lisa
 Johann Gutenberg – movable type for printing presses
 Made it easier and less expensive to copy books
 Technological advances led to exploration
 Magnetic compass; astrolabe – charted position of the stars = ship
position
Trade with Africa and Asia
 Great wealth came from trade with Africa (gold,
ivory, salt, slaves) and Asia (silk and spices)
 Long overland routes to Europe (ex. Silk Road)
 Western European nations wanted to find sea
routes to Africa and Asia because land routes
were less reliable and had to depend on others
(those who controlled land); prices increased
because trade goods passed through hands of
many different merchants
 Marco Polo’s book about his travels in Asia were
popular
 Europeans wanted to learn more about the world,
spread Christianity and make a profit
The Portuguese Explore Africa
 Portugal = leader in overseas exploration (early
1400s)
 Prince Henry “the Navigator” built a navigation
school on the coast of Portugal (finest
mapmakers, sailors, and shipbuilders)
developed the caravel – small ship with triangular
sails; could sail against the wind; improved the
compass
Paid for expeditions to explore the west coast of
Africa – began the European trade in African slaves;
consequence = more warfare among West African
Kingdoms
 Bartolomeu Dias – first to sail around southern
tip of Africa (Cape of Good Hope)
United Streaming Video
The Great Age of
Exploration
Chapter 2
The Age of Exploration
Section 2
Voyages to the Americas
Columbus’s Bold Idea
 Believed Asia (Indies) = west across the
Atlantic
 Portuguese would not fund voyage because
the king preferred Dias’s route around Africa
 After the Reconquista (ongoing struggle to drive
Moors from Spain), Ferdinand and Isabella
agreed to pay for voyage
bring back wealth, claim any lands he explored for Spain
Would become viceroy (royal governor) of lands
explored
Crossing the Ocean
Left Spain in August, 1492, land spotted
October, 1492 (33 days from Canary
Islands)
Nina, Pinta, and the Santa Maria
Voyage was daring because many
people believed that such a long
voyage would be impossible
Columbus’s First Explorations
Landed on island in Bahamas – called it
San Salvador (Holy Savior) – believed it to
be off the coast of China or Japan
Taino – natives on Hispaniola; he called
them Indians (believed he had landed in
the Indies)
Spent more than two months exploring;
built small colony on coast of Hispaniola –
La Navidad
Europe Learns of Columbus’s
Voyage
 Ferdinand and Isabella excited about news of findings,
made Columbus admiral and a governor
 Isabella wanted to convert Taino to Christianity
 Columbus believed it was acceptable to enslave Taino
 As a result of Columbus’s discovery, Spain persuaded
the pope to create the Line of Demarcation securing
its right to lands west of the line – Portuguese king
objected
 Treaty of Tordesillas – signed by Spain and Portugal –
moved line giving Portugal more opportunity to claim
lands unexplored by other Europeans
 As a result, Portugal was able to set up the colony of Brazil
Columbus’s Later Voyages
Returned to La Navidad in 1493 – found it
destroyed, everyone killed
Spent time exploring even though he was
governor
Living conditions poor partly due to difficulty
growing crops
Problems made Ferdinand and Isabella
unhappy
Columbus never made any further
discoveries, etc.
Chapter 2
The Age of Exploration
Section 3
The Race for Trade Routes
Portugal’s Great Discoveries
 Vasco da Gama established trade route
between Portugal and India (found India had
long history of trade with Muslim and Italian
merchants) – Portugal won race for a new sea
route to wealth of Asia
 Pedro Álvars Cabral accidentally landed in
South America; claimed land for Portugal thinking
it was a large island
Brazil’s eastern shore was on Portugal’s side of the
Line of Demarcation
Eventually founded forts, trading posts and settlements
Cabot and Vespucci Explore
John Cabot – Italian sailing for England –
found North America (present-day
Newfoundland)
Became the basis of England’s claim to land
in North America
Amerigo Vespucci – Italian sailing for
Spain – coast of S. America
German map-maker published his letters and
a map labeled with the name “America”
across the new continents in his honor – the
name stuck
Balboa Reaches the Pacific
 Vasco Nuñez de Balboa arrived in Panama
after failing as a farmer in the Caribbean
 Heard of another sea – traveled across land
until he saw (from a mountaintop) what he
named the South Sea
No way for ships to cross Panama
Attempted to have ships carried across mountains piece
by piece
 Success threatened Spanish authorities –
charged with treason and executed
Sailing Around the Globe
 Ferdinand Magellan (Portuguese captain sailing
for Spain) – believed there was a sea passage
through South America to “South Sea”
 Sailed through narrow strait at the southern tip
of S. America – Strait of Magellan
 Changed name to Pacific Ocean (peaceful)
 Magellan killed in battle in the Philippines
 Crew led by Juan Sebastián de Elcano were the
first to circumnavigate the world (18 sailors
remained)
Chapter 2
The Age of Exploration
Section 4
The Opening of the Atlantic
A Shift in Trade
 Italy lost monopoly on overland trade as
Portuguese and Spanish began using the
Atlantic; greater profits made because traders no
longer dealing with third-parties (ex. Muslim
traders)
 Portugal controlled as much as 75% of spice
trade between Europe and Asia
 Other European nations got involved in trade
 All began looking at Atlantic as gateway to the
wealth of the Americas
 Portuguese started the European trade in
African slaves
The Columbian Exchange
 Transfer of plants, animals and diseases to
the “New World;” plants and animals to the
“Old World” – Asia, Europe and Africa
 Corn, tomatoes, potatoes, tobacco and cocoa to
Europe, etc.
 Europeans brought horses (never seen by
natives before), cattle and pigs; wheat and
barley; rice and bananas
 Natives had little or no immunity to diseases
(measles, smallpox, typhus) – hundreds of
thousands died
The Search for a Northwest
Passage
 Spain and Portugal busy with Central and South
America, other European nations looking for
Northwest Passage through N. America to
Pacific
 Verrazano (France) – sailed along coast from
present-day North Carolina to Maine
 Jacques Cartier (France) – two trips to what
is now Eastern Canada – sailed up the St.
Lawrence River all the way to present-day
Montreal
The Search for a Northwest Passage
(continued)
 Samuel de Champlain (France) – followed
Cartier’s old paths; visited the Great Lakes led by
Huron guides; founded small colony on the St.
Lawrence River = Quebec; explorations became
basis of France’s claim to much of Canada
 Henry Hudson (England and Netherlands) – first
sailed to present-day New York; returned for
England – found huge bay (Hudson Bay)
 Northwest Passage was not found by any of
these men, but explorations led to increased
interest in N. America
Important Info. From Sections 3&4
 European race for sea route to Asia was won
by Portugal – started the European trade in
African slaves
 Cabral accidentally discovered the coast of
what is now Brazil
 French claims to much of Canada began with
Champlain’s explorations
 Champlain discovered the Great Lakes with
the aid of Huron Indian guides
 The failure of Verrazano, Cartier, Hudson and
others to find a Northwest Passage did not
dampen European interest in North America
Sections 3 and 4 (continued)
 Balboa first saw the South Sea from a
mountaintop in Panama
 After Balboa discovered the South Sea and
made alliances with American Indians in
what is now Panama, Spanish authorities
had him executed for treason
 Balboa’s discovery of the South Sea
convinced Magellan to sail west to reach
Asia
 The South Sea was renamed the Pacific
during the voyage of Magellan
 Magellan discovered the passage he sought
through South America at the southern tip of
the continent
Sections 3 and 4 (continued)
The Strait of Magellan is the narrow sea
passage discovered in South America by
Magellan
Verrazano was an Italian sea captain who
sailed under the flag of France
Henry Hudson was an English captain
who sailed under the flags of England and
the Netherlands
The North American area explored in the
1500s by Jacques Cartier was what is
now eastern Canada