The Search for
Spices
Chapter 2
Section 1
Motivations for Looking “out’
• People wanted spices, cloth
• The knowledge of these came from the
interaction during the Crusades.
• Italian merchants started the travels
east
Prince Henry the Navigator
• A younger son of the king of
Portugal
• Had a fascination with travel
• Established a school of
Navigation
• Promised to Christianize the
Africans if church would help.
• Although Prince Henry never
went anywhere, he is largely
responsible for the “Age of
Exploration.”
Early exploration
Portuguese Advancements
Cartography
New ships
Training for ship captains and crews
“A central place for knowledge to
come to”
• New “tools”—compass and
Astrolabe to plot location
•
•
•
•
Looking for India and the
Moluccas
• The big problems were
• Ships not good in the open sea
• Going around Africa
• Not knowing where they were going
• Bartholomew Dias was first to go around the
cape and name it the “Cape of Good Hope.”
• Vasco da Gama was next and made it all the way
to Calicut.
• Was a terrible voyage back but money was so good that
he went right back.
• The world was now “open.”
Columbus
• Italian, believed he could sail
west to reach east
• Spent years looking for a patron (Italy
refused, Portugal refused, looked
toward Spain.)
• Spain had defeated the Moors so now
could afford an extra interest so King
Ferdinand and Queen Isabella
offered him minimal ships and
financing.
The Nina, Pinta,
and Santa Maria
How big is
this room?
Nina-@50 ft
Pinta--@56 ft
Santa Maria-58 ft.
THE trip begins
• Aug. 3 1492
• Columbus estimated 5000 miles, it is
25,000 miles
• He had to lie to his sailor to keep
them going.
• Oct. 12, 1492—land was sighted.
The New World
• Columbus spent several month
exploring. One ship sunk, men left
behind to establish a settlement.
• (this was the beginning of the end for
many native tribes in the area)
• Made 5 trips, did not find the spices,
so was a failure. Not until later that
he was fully recognized.
Now what?
• Spain would begin the lead in exploration
• Ferdinand and Isabella asked the Pope
to divide the globe—Spain gets the
western discoveries, Portugal the east.
• A line was drawn on the globe= The Line
of Demarcation.
• The Treaty of Tordesillas made it
official
• Now the race was truly on!!!!
Line of
Demarcation
The Next Treaty settled the
question…
OH yes,
• An Italian sea captain “journaled” his
way into history.
• Amerigo Vespucci wrote of this new
land, then, a German mapmaker
(Martin Waldseemueller) used the
descriptions to publish a map. He
called the new land America, after
the man who journaled…
“America” -- Waldseemueller’s Map
Ferdinand Magellan
• 1519—5 ships, 300 men
• First to go around the world!!!
• His trip went 3 years instead of 5
months!!!!
• Discovered the “Strait of Magellan”—the
passage through South America
• And the first to sail in the Pacific Ocean!!!
• But  he didn’t make it!! Died in the
Phillipines.
Reasons to
Explore
Portugal Leads
Columbus Sails
West
Control Trade
Why did they
do it?
What did
they
accomplish?
“Big Picture”
Results