Explorers

Bradshaw Mountain High School

What motivated the earliest European explorers?

• Faster/ safer trade routes• Spread of Christianity• Adventure• Conquest/power• Wealth (Gold and Silver)• Spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, and pepper)• Spices were used to preserve food.

Obstacles

• Simple compasses and maps

• Enemies

• Disease/death/starvation

• Fear of falling off the earth

• Lack of food, water etc.

Leading up to Exploration (Marco Polo)

• Marco Polo took the Silk Road and returned 3 years later to Europe with the goods he had brought back from China.

• Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press in 1448.

Prince Henry

• Trained and encouraged navigators to reach Cape Verde, southern tip of Africa.

• He employed cartographers who created the most current maps at that time.

Bartholomeu Dias

• The explorer Bartholomeu Dias was the 1st to reach the Cape of Good Hope, the Southern tip of Africa!

• This helped others to see it was possible to reach India by going around Africa!

Vasco Da GamaVasco Da Gama He opened a new

route for trade between Europe and Asia without using the Silk Road.

In 1498, Vasco Da Gama went around Africa and reached India.

Vikings

• Eric the Red was a Viking that led Europeans to Greenland. He started a settlement there.

• Leif Ericson, (a son of Eric the Red) led 35 Vikings about 1000 B.C.E. to go find a land he had heard about through another sailor.

• He landed on Newfoundland and called it Vinland (Wine Land) because they found grapes there that they made into wine.

• On his way back to Greenland, Leif Erickson rescued a ship and its men.

Christopher Columbus• Christopher Columbus

convinced King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain to give him three ships.

• The three ships were: Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria.

• He landed in the Bahama Islands on October 12, 1492.

Christopher Columbus

• He also named San Salvador meaning “Holy Savior.”

• He saw people and named them “Indians” because he thought that he was in the West Indies.

Columbian Exchange

• As a result of Columbus’s voyages to the New World, an exchange began between the Americas and the rest of the world.

Columbian ExchangeAmericas to Europe Europe to Americas

Potatoes & Tomatoes Sugar, Tea, Coffee

Maize, (Corn) Horses, pigs, sheep, goats, cattle, rats

Tobacco Diseases (smallpox, measles, whooping cough, bubonic plague, malaria, yellow fever )

Chocolate •Asian cockroaches, Japanese beetle

Ferdinand Magellan (Portuguese)

• Ferdinand Magellan sailed around the southern tip of South America.

• His crew made the first round trip around the world. His ship the Victoria made it around the world.

• He named the Pacific Ocean because it was so peaceful.

John Cabot• He was born in Italy. • He loved to watch sailors at

the docks and hear their stories.

• At age 16, he began studying sailing and mapping.

• He moved to England and got the King to support his exploration.

• He is important because his exploration for England gave England the right to the USA.

Ponce de Leon• He went with Christopher

Columbus on his 2nd voyage in 1493. He stayed there and became the 1st European to live on the mainland of North America.

• He was looking for the “fountain of youth”

• He found Puerto Rico and became governor there.

• He also found Florida and named it "Pascua de Florida" (feast of flowers) after a Spanish Easter holiday because he found Florida on Easter!

Hernando De Soto

• He Sailed for Spain• His time in the USA

was spent exploring Florida down to Mexico looking for gold.

• He did find the Mississippi River.

Francisco Coronado

• He spent his time looking for the 7 cities of gold!

• He was considered a failure because he didn’t find gold.

Vasco Nunez de Balboa

• Vasco Nunez de Balboa shipwrecked in the Bahamas on the island of Hispaniola.

• He tried to make a living farming but ended up owing a lot of money to people.

• He then hid in a barrel on a ship to escape.

Amerigo Vespucci• Amerigo Vespucci• He wanted to find a

star above the South pole to help sailors navigate.

• He never found the star, but he did help map 3,300 miles of land in South America.

• America was named after him.

Hernando Cortes• Hernando Cortes came

to Mexico.• The Aztecs thought he

might be a god since he was the 1st white person they had ever seen.

• Hernando Cortes conquered the Aztecs in 1519.

Francisco Pizzarro

• He explored Peru.

• Francisco Pizarro conquered the Incas and stole their gold and silver.