•Europe: During the Middle Ages, European Christians went to war in the Middle East against the Muslims. These wars are known as the Crusades. The purpose of the Crusades was to capture the Holy Land for European Christians.

-The Crusades were a failure, but Europeans were exposed to many new products, ideas, and cultures. Europeans wanted the goods from India and China. (Silk, spices, food)

-European kings sent explorers to find a water route to India and China in order to trade directly with the Indians and Chinese and skip the Middle Eastern merchants. This will begin the Age of Exploration.

AGE OF EXPLORATION: Search for all water route to India and China.

-Portuguese were the 1st to reach India by water; went around Africa.

Silks: Ginger

Limes

Oranges Lemons

Pepper

Nutmeg

European Crusaders

Spices:

Europe

Holy Land/

Middle EastFoods:

AGE OF EXPLORATION: Search for all water route to India and China.

•Christopher Columbus will sail west across the Atlantic Ocean in 1492. Columbus will discover the New World. He will discover gold, silver, and other valuable resources in the New World. The Spanish government will send other explorers to conquer the New World and create colonies in order to acquire the gold and resources.

•Columbus believed he could reach Asia by sailing west across the Atlantic Ocean. Instead, he discovered a new land.

•Advances in ship building and new technology, such as the astrolabe, allowed Europeans to sail farther than ever before.

European view of the world in the 1400’s.

Columbian Exchange: With the discovery of the New World by Columbus, other European nations will send explorers to the New World and will begin creating colonies in order to search for gold and acquire natural resources such as lumber and furs.

-This will cause the cultures of the Old World (Europe, Africa, and Asia) to come into contact with the cultures of the New World (The America’s). These cultures will exchange ideas, information, agricultural products, and other goods with each other.

Columbian Exchange: The exchange of goods, such as cattle and corn, between the America’s and Europe.

ENGLAND

FRANCE

SPAIN

EUROPE

Old World (Europe) meets the New World (America)

Spain: God, Gold, Glory

New Spain: Spain creates empire in the New World to control the gold and silver.

Cortes conquers the Aztecs

Pizzaro conquers the Incas

These European nations will dominate North America in the 1500-1600’s.

Colonization: During the 1500-1600’s, European nations would create colonies in North America. They created colonies in order to control the natural resources of the New World. (Gold, silver, animal skins, lumber, agricultural products, fish, and others.)

-They were also searching for the Northwest Passage: a water route through North America from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. They never found it because it does not exist.

-In North America, it was England, France, and the Netherlands that created colonies.