The Age of Exploration
Chapter 2
Essential Questions
1. What were the three main motives for
exploration?
2. Which explorers and countries were
most noteworthy during this time?
3. What resulted from the voyages?
Discussion Questions: Why was Europe interested in the Asia? What
was the major dilemma in getting what they wanted?
Europe wanted to trade in Asia, but hated and was afraid of Muslims in
between them. No land or routes to trade around them yet and the
Muslims would only trade Asian goods with Italy.
What were the three motives for
exploration?
1. God: Wanting to Christianize heathens
(especially Muslims), cultural superiority,
“white man’s burden.” *Like U.S. Imperialism
2. Glory: Spirit of adventure and curiosity during
renaissance, fame, nationalism. *Manifest Destiny,
Turner thesis
3. Gold: Rulers who trade with Asia get rich and
powerful. Merchants who sell Asian goods in Europe
make a lot of money. *Trade today
Previously
unknown Asian goods
in high demand since
Crusades.
What made exploration possible?
Technology:
Smaller, sturdy ships called
caravels with a smaller crew.
More accurate maps
Mariner’s compass
Weapons: Cannons and guns.
How did the Pope keep Spain and Portugal
from fighting over newly discovered lands?
Line of Demarcation: Spain tells Pope about discovery.
Pope divides non-Christian world between Portugal
and Spain so they don’t fight.
Spanish Exploration
Columbus
Explain what Columbus did in 1492
Discovered America:
Italian navigator sailing for Spain and seeking westward route to
Asia. Thought Caribbean was Asia. Took Indians to Spain. Took
colonist back to America. Arrested after colonies mismanaged.
Cabot and Vespucci followed to N. America.
Explain what Magellan did in 1519
First to circumnavigate the world
Sailed west from Spain, cut through S. America at the Straight of
Magellan to Pacific, sailed and starved for one month to Asia.
Magellan dies in Philippians. Crew finishes without him.
Portuguese Exploration
Vasco da Gama
What do you know about Portuguese
exploration?
1. Small country with big interest. Prince Henry
the Navigator spends his own money on
expert group to secretly prepare a crew.
2.
Set up trade and colonies on east coast of
Africa. Used cannons to negotiate trade
rights with locals.
3.
Dias and da Gama = India. Kick out
Muslims, set up trade rights with locals.
4.
Competition with Italy for Asian goods
means cheaper items for Europeans,
demand goes up, Portugal makes money.
5.
They had nothing to trade to Asia, must
pay in gold. Not powerful enough to
colonize Asia, like they did in the Central
and South America.
The American Colonies Emerge
Spain establishes an
American empire,
devastating native
populations. England
forces the Dutch from
North America and
establishes thirteen
colonies.
Malinche, a slave fluent in Maya and
Aztec, served as interpreter for the
conqueror Hernando Cortés.
NEXT
Section 2
Spain’s Empire in
the Americas
Throughout the 1500s and 1600s, the Spanish
conquer Central and portions of North America.
NEXT
SECTION
2
Spain’s Empire in the Americas
The Spanish Claim a New Empire
Cortés Subdues the Aztec
• Conquistadors (conquerors)—Spanish explorers,
seek gold, silver
• 1519 Hernándo Cortés leads army into Americas,
claims land for Spain
• Aztec dominate region; Nahua people who resent
Aztec join Cortés
• Montezuma thinks Cortés a god; gives him share
of Aztec gold
• In 1520 Aztec rebel; in 1521 Spanish and their
allies defeat Aztec
• Cortés founds Mexico City, New Spain colony on
Tenochtitlán ruins
Map
Continued . . .
NEXT
SECTION
2
continued The
Spanish Claim a New Empire
Spanish Pattern of Conquest
• Spanish settlers mostly men, called
peninsulares; marry native women
• Mestizo—person of mixed Spanish and
Native American ancestry
• Landlords use encomienda—force
natives to farm, ranch, mine
• Priests object, encomienda abolished;
Africans brought as slaves
NEXT
SECTION
2
The Conquistadors Push North
Other Countries Explore North America
• England, France, Netherlands sponsor voyages in
1500s and 1600s
Map
Exploring Florida
• Juan Ponce de León discovers and names La
Florida (1513)
• Pedro Menéndez de Avilés expels French, founds
St. Augustine (1565)
Settling the Southwest
• In 1540, Francisco Vásquez de Coronado leads
expedition to Southwest
• Pedro de Peralta, governor of New Mexico,
Spain’s northern holdings
• He helps found Santa Fe (1609–1610); several
missions built in area
Image
NEXT
SECTION
2
Resistance to the Spanish
Conflict in New Mexico
• Priests convert many Native Americans, try to
suppress their culture
• In 1670s Spanish force natives to pay tribute, do
labor for missions
Image
Popé’s Rebellion
• Pueblo religious leader Popé heads uprising in
New Mexico (1680)
• Pueblo destroy Spanish churches, execute
priests, force Spanish out
• Spanish armies regain area 14 years later
NEXT
Objectives
• Describe the religious and economic conflicts in
Europe during the Reformation.
• Explain why European powers continued to
search for a new route to Asia.
• Describe the outcome of the search by
explorers John Cabot and Henry Hudson for a
northwest passage around the Americas.
Terms and People
• mercantilism – a system that held that
colonies existed to make the home country
wealthy and powerful
• John Cabot – an Italian explorer who
disappeared while on his second voyage to find
a northern route to Asia
• northwest passage – a hypothetical sea route
from the Atlantic to the Pacific that passed
through or around North America
• Henry Hudson – an English explorer who
attempted to find a northwest passage
How did conflicts in Europe spur
exploration in North America?
As the appeal of the Reformation increased,
the split between the Catholics and the
Protestants increased religious and
economic tensions in Europe.
Catholics
Protestants
The Reformation caused religious tensions that
inflamed existing rivalries among the nations of
Europe.
Nations did not feel that they could depend on
their allies to protect them.
By 1530, the
rulers of Sweden,
Denmark, and
several European
states had split
with the Roman
Catholic Church.
They set up
Protestant
churches in their
countries.
Swiss thinker John Calvin influenced the
development of Protestant churches in
France, Switzerland, Scotland, and the
Netherlands.
In England, King Henry VIII joined the side of the
Protestants when he sought to divorce his wife,
Catherine of Aragon.
The pope refused to annul the king’s marriage, so
Henry broke with the Catholic church.
He set up a Protestant church and named it
the Church of England.
King Henry VIII died in 1547, and his son ruled only
briefly before he died, too.
The throne passed to Mary I,
who wanted to restore the
Catholic Church in England.
But Mary died in 1558, and
Elizabeth I, a Protestant,
took the throne.
Queen Elizabeth I
At this time, Spain and England were rivals
because:
King Philip II of
Spain wanted to
make England a
Catholic nation
again.
The English were
raiding Spanish
ships for gold
from the
Americas.
England was
helping Holland, a
Spanish province,
try to win its
independence.
In 1588, King Philip sent 130 ships to England,
hoping to force Queen Elizabeth from the throne.
English ships met the
Spanish ships off the
coast of France and
sank half of them.
Spain’s defeat changed the balance of power
in Europe.
Spain’s control of the seas was weakened, so
England and France were able to found colonies in
the Americas.
England funded an exploration led by John
Cabot.
Cabot thought a more northern route to Asia
would be easier than the route Christopher
Columbus had tried.
• During his first trip, in 1497, he explored the
region around Newfoundland.
• During Cabot’s second trip, in 1498, his ships
disappeared without a trace.
Europeans soon realized the lands Cabot reached were
not Asia, and they financed voyages to the new regions.
Explorers from
England,
France, and
Holland set out
to find a
northwest
passage.
The Search for a Northwest Passage
Giovanni da
Verrazzano
• In 1524, this Italian explorer sailed
for France, exploring the Atlantic
coastal region from North Carolina to
Newfoundland.
• He found the mouth of the Hudson
River and New York Bay.
Jacques
Cartier
• This French explorer made three trips
to North America for France.
• He discovered the St. Lawrence River
and explored it as far as present-day
Montreal.
English explorer Henry Hudson made four
voyages in search of a northwest passage.
After two unsuccessful voyages, Hudson’s English
backers gave up on him.
However, in 1609, the Dutch financed his
third voyage, during which he reached New
York and explored the river that today bears
his name.
In 1610, the English sponsored Hudson’s fourth voyage,
during which his ship got stuck in the icy waters of
Hudson Bay.
In the spring of 1611, his
irate crew mutinied and
set him, his son, and
several crew members
adrift in a small boat.
Hudson was never
heard from again.
After Hudson,
European
countries shifted
their focus from
finding a
northwest
passage to
exploring the
land itself.
Europeans began
to consider
exploiting the
resources of the
land for profit.
At the time, European leaders supported an
economic theory called mercantilism.
By establishing colonies, European nations
could increase their own power and wealth.