The Age of Exploration
I.
Europe Gets Ready to Explore
- after the collapse of the Mongol Empire, local rulers
taxed merchants who used the Silk Road
- the Ottoman Turks conquered the Byzantine Empire
and blocked Italian merchants from entering the Black
Sea
- Europeans wanted spices and silk from Asia. Having
to trade with the Turks for these goods drove prices
higher
- In the 1400s, new technology allowed the Europeans
to navigate the Atlantic Ocean. Increased trade and
strong governments made expensive trips possible
- By the end of the 1400s, Spain, Portugal, England, and
France were anxious to discover a water route to Asia
- Europeans discovered maps of the world drawn by
Claudius Ptolemy and printed them in 1475. Ptolemy’s
system of latitude and longitude is still used today
- Europeans also discovered a book written by an Arab
geographer, al-Idrisi that showed the geography of
East Africa and the Indian Ocean. Explorers hoped
that they could find a route to Asia by sailing around
Africa
II.
Exploring the World
- Henry the Navigator was a Portuguese prince who set
up a research center for cartography and shipbuilding
- The Portuguese began mapping Africa’s coastline and
trading with African kingdoms, and then took control
of the Azores, Madeira, and Cape Verde Islands
- The Portuguese brought enslaved Africans to their
islands to work in the sugarcane fields
- Vasco da Gama sailed around the tip of Africa and
across the Indian Ocean in 1497
- Christopher Columbus, an Italian sea captain, received
funding from the rulers of Spain to search for a route
to Asia by crossing the Atlantic Ocean. In 1492,
Columbus landed in the Caribbean and explored the
area, thinking he had reached Asia.
- Ferdinand Magellan discovered what became known
as the Strait of Magellan, the passageway south of
South America. Magellan was later killed by natives
in the Philippines, and his crew continued on to Spain.
They were the first known people to circumnavigate,
or sail around the world.
- In 1497, the English captain John Cabot sailed along
the coast of Canada. He was searching for a northern
route to Asia
- Giovanni da Verrazano, an explorer sailing for France,
mapped America’s coast while searching for a route to
Asia
- Jacques Cartier, while attempting to find a northern
route to Asia, explored the St. Lawrence River
- Spain built a large empire in America, enslaving
Africans and Native Americans to work farms in the
new land. Spanish conquistadors conquered Native
American peoples while searching for riches
- England and Spain became enemies after the
Protestants in the Netherlands rebelled against
Catholic Spain, and England aided the Dutch people
- Privateers were privately owned ships that had a
license from the government to attack ships from other
countries
- The king of Spain sent the Spanish Armada, a huge
fleet of ships, to invade England, but the Armada
failed
III. The Commercial Revolution
- the Portuguese defeated the Muslim merchants in the
Indian Ocean. Then they established trading posts in
Asia
- to become rich, the Europeans came up with the idea
of mercantilism. Mercantilism is the idea that a
country gains power by building up its supply of gold
and silver. To do this, a country exports, or sells to
other countries, more goods than it imports, or buys
from other countries.
- A colony is a settlement of people living in a new
territory controlled by their home country. Europe set
up colonies in Asia and the Americas
- Commerce is the buying and selling of goods in large
amounts over long distances. Merchants had to change
the way they did business to participate in commerce.
This new type of businessperson was called an
entrepreneur.
- Some business deals were so large that many
entrepreneurs joined together to form a joint-stock
company that invested in a business
- The merchants, frustrated with the guilds, asked
peasants to make goods for them. This system is called
the cottage industry.
IV. A Global Exchange
- the Columbian Exchange refers to the exchange of
people, technology, ideas, and even diseases that
occurred between Europe and America during the Age
of Exploration
- crops and animals were exchanged with countries
around the globe. Native Americans of the Great
Plains began using horses to hunt buffalo.
- People also moved as a part of the Exchange. Millions
of enslaved Africans were sent to the Americas to
work on plantations. The East India Company of
England built an empire in India, and the Dutch East
India Company built an empire in Indonesia.
- Asian society was also changed. Using European
weapons, the shogun was able to reunite Japan.
- Not all changes were good. Many Native Americans
were killed by various diseases brought over by the
Europeans.
V.
Tidbit
- the Renaissance and the Reformation were going on
during a large portion of the Age of Exploration
-