THE GREAT GEOGRAPHICAL
DISCOVERIES
- the conventional term employed in
literature (primarily historical) to
designate the major geographical
discoveries made by European
voyagers from the mid-15th to the mid16th centuries. It is chosen by the
historians as a border to separate
Medieval and Modern Times.
Geographical discoveries-Great explorersQuiz
• 1. Who discovered Brazil?
Pedro Alvarus Cabral
2. Who discoverd New Zealand?
Abel Tasman
3. Who discovered Australia?
Captain Cook
4. Who discoverd America?
Christopher Columbus
Geographical discoveries-Great explorersQuiz
• 5. Who discovered a sea route to India from
Europe?
Vasco de Gama
6. Who discovered Victoria falls?
David Livingstone
7. Who discoverd South Pole?
Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen
8. Who discovered North Pole?
Robert Peary
Causes of the Geographical
Discoveries
• Commercial – Europeans wanted to find
a shorter way to India and China /”the way
to the silk’/
• Religious – the willingness of the
Europeans to spread over Christian faith
• Political – aspirations of rulers to spread
over their faith and power
The Great Geographical Discoveries
•
•
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The earliest map of
the world
EUROPE
Showing the principal Roman Roads
…..knowledge in the early days of the Great
Geographical discoveries.
Portugal and Spain were the strongest sea countries, esp.
Portugal. The Portuguese rulers protected and patronized
navigation.
Prince Henry the Navigator
established a school for the
study of the arts of navigation,
mapmaking, and shipbuilding.
His goal was to find a route to
the rich spice trade of the
Indies and to explore the west
coast of Africa. The ships that
sailed the Mediterranean were
too slow and too heavy to
make these voyages. Under his
direction, a new and lighter
ship was developed, the
caravel, which would allow sea
captains to sail further and
faster.
Portuguese explorations
The Caravel /a three-mast galley/
Portuguese explorations
Despite the creation of the caravel and
the knowledge shared at his school for
sailors, Prince Henry had a great deal of
difficulty persuading his captains to sail
beyond Cape Bojodor off the west coast
of Africa. According to legend, beyond
this point in an area known as the "Green
Sea of Darkness," the sun was so close to
the Earth that a person’s skin would burn
black, the sea boiled, ships caught on
fire, and monsters hid waiting to smash
the ships and eat the sailors. It took
fourteen voyages over a period of 12
years until a ship finally reached the
equator.
•
Map of African coast discovered
by expeditions sponsored
by Prince Henry
During the two-year period from 1444 to
1446, Prince Henry intensified the
exploration of Africa, sending between
30 and 40 of his ships on missions. The
last voyage sponsored by Prince Henry
sailed over 1,500 miles down the African
coast.
Portuguese explorations
• 1498 Vasco da Gama
sailed round the African
coast and reached Kalkuta,
India.
Portuguese explorations
1500 – Pedro Alvares Cabral
discovered Brazil and called it
the “land of the real cross”
Spanish explorations
The Queen of Spain, Isabella,
patronized the voyage of
Christopher Columbus.
The Spanish intended to reach India following west or southwest route:
1492 – Columbus reached New World. He explored Bahama
group and the northern coasts of Cuba
1493 -1494 – Columbus reached the southern coast of Cuba. He
was convinced that he had landed on a peninsula of mainland
China.
Spanish explorations
Columbus Landing in the New World
The New World
•
Seven years after Columbus' first voyage
and while Columbus was still alive,
Vespucci accompanied an expedition that
consisted of four ships. They sailed past
the eastern coast of South America, and
visited Trinidad, which Columbus had
named the preceding year. On his return
Amerigo Vespucci
to Europe Vespucci wrote letters with
glowing descriptions of the newly
discovered countries. He called the lands he had visited
a "New World."
The New World
•
When he Amerigo Vespucci
came back to
Spain he set up a school
for navigators. He wrote
a book called the Four
Voyages in which he claims
he was the true discoverer
of the New World.
A German mapmaker,
Martin Waldseemuller,
placed his name on a new map
published in 1507.
The Voyages of Amerigo Vespucci