Early Explorations
Chapter 17:i
Psalter Map
circa 1250
Medieval
maps depicted
the world as a
disc with
Jerusalem at
the centre.
Ptolemy’s map of the world
Portolan chart
“When old Cape Nun heaves into sight
Turn back, my lad,
or else - good night!”
- popular Portuguese verse
Portuguese
captain Gil
Eanes’ return
from a voyage
to the South
Atlantic in
1434 set the
stage for later
voyages of
discovery.
Advances in technology allowed
European cartographers to produce
more accurate maps.
Ocean charts began to
include lines of latitude.
Sailors
could
calculate
their
latitude
using an
astrolabe.
Sailors could determine their
location at sea out of the site of
land by using a magnetic compass.
The Portuguese-designed, oceangoing caravel could carry more sail
and had more space for cargo and
supplies than earlier ships.
Italian citystates such as
Venice and
Genoa lacked
the resources
for such large
undertakings.
Ferdinand V
Isabella I
It was the rulers of emerging nations
who sponsored the great seafaring
expeditions of the 1400 and 1500s.
Europeans co-opted already-existing trade
routes in the Indian Ocean established by
Arab merchants.
Prince
Henry the
Navigator
Prince Henry’s Charter
Captain Dias
commanded
the first
Portuguese
expedition to
sail around
Africa into
the Indian
Ocean.
He passed the Cape of Storms on
his way.
Route
followed
by Diaz
The Portuguese
explorer Vasco
da Gama led the
first European
expedition to
reach India by
sea around the
southern tip of
Africa.
Da Gama’s
fleet of four
ships made
the voyage
across the
Indian Ocean
to Calicut in
India.
Da
Gama’s
voyage
brought
Portugal
closer to
acquiring
a trading
empire in
Asia.
Da Gama was
serving as the
viceroy of
India when he
died in Cochin
in 1524.
The Genoese
sea captain
Christopher
Columbus
conceived of a
plan to reach
the Orient by
sailing west
across the
Atlantic Ocean.
Queen
Isabella I
of Spain
agreed to
sponsor
Columbus’
voyage.
Columbus set sail with three ships
from Palos, Spain, on August 3rd,
1492 .
Historians are unsure
of where Columbus
first made landfall.
Instead of finding a shortcut to
Asia, Columbus discovered a
whole new world.
Columbus would eventually make
four voyages to the New World.
In order to
keep peace,
the pope
negotiated the
Treaty of
Tordesillas,
dividing all
newlydiscovered
lands between
Spain and
Portugal.
Pedro Cabral
claimed
Brazil for
Portugal
when a storm
blew his
expedition to
India off
course.
The Italian
navigator Amerigo
Vespucci charted
the coastline of
Central America
and described the
continent as the
“Mundus Novus,”
or “New World.”
The German cartographer Martin
Waldseemuller was first to label the
newly-discovered lands America.
Conquistadore Don Juan Ponce de
Leon II, the conqueror of Puerto
Rico, sailed with Columbus on his
second voyage to the New World.
In his efforts to find the fountain of
youth, Juan Ponce de Leon II
explored much of what is presentday Florida.
The Spanish
explorer Vasco
de Balboa is
considered to
be the first of
the conquistadores (leaders of the
Spanish conquest) in the Western
Hemisphere.
Balboa is
credited with
discovering
the Pacific
Ocean after
crossing the
Isthmus of
Panama.
Portuguese
explorer
Ferdinand
Magellan,
sailing under
the Spanish
flag, attempted
to find a
western sea
route to Asia.
Magellan’s efforts ultimately led
to the first circumnavigation of
the earth.
Magellan discovered the straits at
the southern tip of South America
which now bear his name along
the way.
[Need pix of Magellan in
Philippines.]
In 1580, Sir
Francis Drake
returned to
England after
raiding Spanish
settlements on
the west coast of
South America.
Drake was the first Englishman to
circumnavigate the earth.
Italian sea
captain John
Cabot made
two voyages
to the New
World for
England.
Believing he had reached the coast
of northeast Asia, Cabot claimed the
land for King Henry VII of England.
The English sea captain Sir Martin
Frobisher explored the area around
Baffin Island.
Frobisher Bay
Frobisher was knighted for his
participation in defeating the
Spanish Armada in 1588.
Italian navigator
Giovanni de
Verrazano
explored the
coast of North
America from
Newfoundland to
present-day
Delaware under
the French flag.
The French
explorer
Jacques Cartier
discovered the
St. Lawrence
River in an
attempt to find
a passage to the
Pacific ocean.
Much of the French claim to Canada
was based on Cartier's explorations.
The Englishman Henry Hudson
devoted himself to finding a sea
passage through the Americas to
the Orient.
It was on his third
voyage in 1609
sailing for the
Dutch in the Halve
Moon that Henry
Hudson discovered
the Hudson River
in present-day New
York state.
Henry Hudson ultimately made
four voyages of discovery.