• 4/17 Focus:
– Europeans, seeking a greater share of the rich
Asian spice trade, began to make oceanic
voyages of exploration in the 1400’s
• Important Terms:
– Cartography
• Do Now:
– What impact did the Ottomans have on
European trade with Asia
The Age of Exploration
Early Voyages of Exploration
• Factors that increased
European interests in
trade with Asia
– Crusades
– Pax Mongolia
– Marco Polo’s travels
• European trade
with Asia had
been disrupted
by Ottomans
control of E.
Mediterranean
– Byzantine falls
– Constantinople
becomes
Istanbul
•
• Italian and Muslim
merchants
controlled trade
routes to Asia
– Acted as a
middleman between
W. Europe and Asia
• Muslim traders
brought the goods to
the Mediterranean
• Italian traders
brought the goods to
Europe
• Increased prices of
goods
• Europeans
wanted to gain
direct access to
trade with Asia
– Began seeking
ocean routes to
Asia
• Some Europeans
motivated by
desire to spread
Christianity
• Others by
adventure and
Glory
• The renaissance led to
new developments in
technology and
scientific knowledge
– The Printing Press
• Gutenberg developed
moveable type printing
press
• Increased the spread of
ideas and information
– Geography
• Mapmaking and Navigation
– Compass
– Astrolabe and Sextant
• Instruments which helped sailors
navigate the seas
– Improvements in cartography
• Use of lines of latitude
• Maps showing ocean currents
Sextant
Astrolabe
(1532)
Mariner’s Compass
• Improvements in shipbuilding
– Advances in shipbuilding
lead to the creation of
ships that could sail long
distances
• Learned shipbuilding
techniques from Arabs
– Stern rudders
– Triangular sails
• The Caravel
– ship developed
by the
Portuguese
– Faster and
capable of
holding more
cargo
– Could sail in
shallow water
• Allowed for the
exploration of
coastlines and
inlets
• Identify one factor that increased
Europe’s interest in trade with Asia?
• Why did Europeans begin searching for
a sea route to Asia?
• Identify one technological development
that allowed the Europeans to begin
searching for sea routes to Asia?
• 4/23 Focus:
– Portugal and Spain both had technology,
resources, and political unity to support sea
travel and exploration
– Identify one example of how cultural diffusion
helped European exploration.
•
• Two western
European nations
that led early
attempts at
exploration in Europe
• located on the
Iberian Peninsula
– Looked to the
Atlantic for trade
routes to Asia
• Portuguese prince who
established a school for
sailors in Portugal in 1419
– School was responsible for the
early development of European
exploration and maritime trade
with Africa and Asia
• Portugal becomes a leader in this
area
– Portuguese sailors began
exploring the coast of West
Africa
• Portuguese sailor
who sailed around
the tip of Africa in
1487
– The Cape of Good
Hope
• Portuguese sailor who traveled around
Africa to Calcutta, India in 1498
• Campaign by Christians
to recapture Spain
from Muslim rule
– Spain and Portugal
Conquered by Muslim
invaders in 8th century
• King Ferdinand and Queen
Isabella take the last
Muslim province in Spain
(1492)
• Began Spanish inquisition
to create religious unity
• Financed voyages to find
new routes to Asia
• Venetian sailor working for
Spain crosses the Atlantic
with three ships and
discovers the “New World”
– Believed Asia could be reached
by sailing west from Spain
• Believed it was about 2,000 miles
from Spain
• Estimated it to be a 2month
journey
– Left Lisbon, Spain on August
3,1492
– Lands on a small island in the
Bahamas on October 12,1492
• Names the island San Salvador
• Vikings had sailed west
to North America
several centuries before
Columbus
• Leif Ericksson explored
a area west of Greenland
that Vikings called
Vinland
– Historians believe that
Vinland was North
America
• Archaeologists have found
Viking settlements in
Newfoundland
• Portuguese sailor
who found South
America
– Had been
attempting to sail
around Africa
– Sailed too far
west and landed
the coast of
modern day Brazil
• Portuguese sailor who became the first
person to circumnavigate the globe
– Sail completely around the world
• Spain and Portugal both
claimed the Americas
• Pope Alexander VI
divided the non European
world between Spain and
Portugal
– Line of Demarcation
• West went Spain
• East went to Portugal
• Identify one reason why Spain and
Portugal came to dominate exploration
in the Atlantic?
• What is the significance of Vasco de
Gama’s voyages of exploration?