European
Exploration after
1400
Grade 7 Social Studies
Lesson 4
Modified from Jefferson County VLA
By Terri Hatch, Wilmington City Schools
Early Exploration
After the end of the Roman Empire, the
Arabs expanded their relationships with
the East.
 The Chinese also made many explorations
in the period.
 One of the best known Chinese travelers
is Hsuan-tsang.

Early Exploration by Europeans

European knowledge of Asia gained
during the Crusades was extended by the
journey across Asia made by missionaries
and by Marco Polo.
Marco Polo
The European “Age of Discovery”

Three things started the European “age of
discovery”
 The
search for new trade routes
 The rise of merchant capitalism
 The desire to expand the potential of a global
economy
Henry the Navigator

Henry the Navigator promoted voyages
along the coast of Africa that helped
change the superstitions and
misinformation that had stopped previous
attempts to sail there.
Mapping the Globe

The extent of the globe was revealed by
Bartholomew Diaz’s rounding of the Cape
of Good Hope in 1486-87, Vasco da
Gama’s voyage to India in 1497-98,
Christopher Columbus’s first voyage to
America in 1492, and the circumnavigation
of the globe by Ferdinand Magellan from
1519-22.
Statue of Diaz in
Cape Town.
Christopher
Columbus
Africa
Africa is a large continent.
 It’s largest rivers are the Nile (the world’s
longest river), the Congo, the Niger, the
Samzezi, the Orange, the Limpopo, and
the Senegal.

African People
African people account for over 12% of the
world’s population. They live in 54
nations.
 Africa has the longest human history of
anywhere in the world.

Economy

Most of Africa’s population is rural. They
live in small villages rather than big cities.

Except for cash crops, such as cacao and
peanuts, however, agricultural production
is low by world standards.
Peanut plant
Cocoa tree
Important Explorers
Hernando Cortes – Conquered Mexico
 Vasco Da Gama – First European to reach
India by sea.
 Sir Francis Drake – First English explorer
to sail around the world.
 Francisco Pizarro – Conquered Peru and
founded Lima
 Juan Ponce de Leon – Explored Florida

Christopher Columbus
Columbus achieved fame by sailing west
across the Atlantic Ocean in search of a
sea route to Asia.
 He didn’t accomplish this goal. He found
islands in the Caribbean Sea instead.
 During his four voyages westward –
between 1492 and 1504 – Columbus
explored the West Indies and the coasts of
Central and South America.

John Cabot
John Cabot made the first English voyage
to North America. This gave England a
claim to the mainland of North America.
 This led to the founding of English
colonies in America.
 When Cabot returned to England he was
called “The Great Admiral”.

Amerigo Vespucci
Amerigo Vespucci was an Italian-born
explorer for whom America was named.
 Martin Waldseemuller, a
German mapmaker, believed
that Vespucci was the first
European to reach the New World.

Vasco Nunez de Balboa
Vasco Nunez de Balboa was the first
European to see the eastern shore of the
Pacific Ocean.
 He saw it from a mountaintop in what is
now Panama.
 After a later exploration, Balboa and four
friends were accused of treason by
Governor Pedrarias and were beheaded.

Hernando Cortes
Hernando Cortes was a Spanish explorer
who conquered what is now central and
southern Mexico.
 He conquered the Aztec Indians in 1521.
 Cortes took the Aztec emperor, Montezuma
II hostage and tried to rule the empire
through him.
 King Charles I of Spain appointed Cortes
Governor and captain general of the newly
conquered territory.

Francisco Pizarro
Francisco Pizarro was a Spanish
conqueror.
 His conquest of the Inca empire in Peru
opened the way for Spain’s colonization of
most of South America.

Peru
Pizarro

In 1535, Pizarro founded the city of Lima
and made it Peru’s capital.
Juan Ponce de Leon
Ponce de Leon was a Spanish explorer
that led the first recorded European
expedition to reach what is now Florida.
 According to a popular story, Ponce de
Leon came to Florida to find a spring
called the Fountain of Youth.

Ponce de
Leon
Florida
Vasco da Gama
Vasco da Gama was a Portuguese sea
captain and explorer.
 Da Gama sailed around the Cape of Good
Hope to India in the late 1490’s.
 His voyage opened the first all-water trade
route between Europe and Asia.

Vasco da Gama
Cape of
Good Hope
The Admiral of the Sea of India
On May 20, 1498, da Gama reached
Calicut, India.
 Da Gama arrived back in Lisbon in 1499.
 King Manuel rewarded him and gave him
the title of Admiral of the Sea of India.

Ferdinand Magellan




Ferdinand Magellan was a Portuguese sea
captain who led the first expedition that sailed
around the world.
His voyage provided the first positive proof that
the earth is round.
Magellan discovered the passage to the Pacific
that is known as the Strait of Magellan.
He named the ocean the Pacific, which means
peaceful.
Strait of
Magellan
End of Lesson 4

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