The Age of Exploration
Causes of Exploration
• Renaissance ideas of humanism
and intellectual progress
• God: Reformation and CounterReformation create desires to
convert people to religions
• Gold: Desire for Luxury Goods and
Wealth
• Glory: Stood to become famous
(and rich!) off of exploration
• Advances in Technology
• Better navigation devices (compass)
• Shipbuilding improved (larger,
faster ships)
Who Started the Age of Exploration?
• Portugal: Prince Henry the
Navigator funded many
expeditions to the Atlantic Ocean
and Africa
• Main Goal: Find a water route
around Africa to India
• Spain: Supported by King
Ferdinand and Queen Isabella
• Main Goal: Wanted to seek new
routes to the East (India and
China)
• Other European Countries will
eventually start exploration
• England
• The Netherlands
• France
Consequences of the
Age of Exploration
• Colonialism
• one country taking over and
settling in land in another
region
• Starts a larger trend of
Europeans moving to the
Americas
• Columbian Exchange
• Global exchange of goods,
plants, animals and diseases
between the Americas and
Europe
The Columbian Exchange
From Europe, Africa, and Asia to
the Americas
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Cattle
Chickens
Donkeys
Horses
Pigs
Bananas
Sugary
Coffee
Diseases: Smallpox,
Influenza, Measles, Cholera
From the Americas to Europe
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Guinea Pigs
Llamas
Turkeys
Beans
Chocolate
Corn
Potatoes
Rubber
Tobacco
Results of the Columbian
Exchange
• Crops native to Americas
became key parts of the
European Diet (Potato in Ireland
 later Potato Famine causes
many to die)
• Improves health of Europeans
and Asians b/c of better food
choices  Increase life
expectancy and population
growth
• New economic activities in
Americas (coffee plantations,
cattle ranches)
• Introduction of New Diseases
dramatically decreases Native
American population
Additional Consequences of
the Age of Exploration
• Impact on Native
American Population
• New diseases killed
millions of Native
Americans
• 90% of population dies
• Creation of the
Atlantic Slave Trade
• Caused by decline in
Native American
population
• Needed greater work
force  look to Africa
• 15-20 million Africans
to Americas