The Age of Exploration

Europe Asia and the Americas

Motivation

• Gold • Glory • God

Search for Spices

• Europeans desired luxury goods and spices from the East.– Spices were very

expensive– Food– Medicines– Perfumes

Trade routes

• Land routes between Europe and Asia were unreliable.– Threat from barbarians – Muslim traders cut off the trade routes to the

East.• Italian city states were the only ones granted trading

privileges with the Muslims

Search for new trade routes

• Hoping to bypass the Muslim and Italian traders who controlled the rich Asian spice trade, Europeans sought a new sea route to Asia.

Advances in technology

• helped European explorers navigate the vast oceans of the world.

Improved ships

• Caravel• Carrack

• Rudders, masts, weapons

Navigational tools

• Cartography –– Improved maps

• Astrolabe and Quadrant– Latitude

• Compass• Directions

1400s- 1600s

• Age of Global Exploration– Portugal– Spain– Netherlands (the Dutch)– England– France

Portugal in the 1400s

• Pioneers in exploration• Superior military power.• Began exploring the

African Coast.• They controlled the

spice trade between Europe and Asia for most of the 1500s.

Prince Henry the Navigator

• Portuguese Prince• Naval School at Sagres– Built ships– Created maps– Studied astronomy– Developed tools– Trained men

Vasco de Gama

• Found the passage around the Cape of Good Hope to India.

• His discovery of this route allowed Portugal to dominate the spice trade.

Christopher Columbus

• Financed by Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain

• Searching for a sea route west to Asia.

Columbus

• Pinta, Nina, Santa Maria.

• Landed in the Caribbean, though he believed it was the Indies

Americas

• Gold, silver and other riches.• Led to numerous expeditions first from

Portugal and Spain and other European countries.

Columbian Exchange

• Transfer of foods, diseases, animals from one continent to the other as a result of explorations

• 1494 The Treaty of Tordesillas divides the world between Spain and Portugal for the alleged purpose of spreading Christianity.

• Line of Demarcation determined by Pope Alexander VI

Explorations continued

• Portugal and Spain led the way in overseas exploration.

• Later, the English, French, and Dutch joined.• Circumnavigation of the Globe• Search for a northwest passage to Asia.

Problems at sea

• Storms• Rough waters• Tropical heat• Shipwrecks• Scurvy• Lack of drinking water

Impact of Explorations

• European supremacy in the world– Imperialism

Impact of Exploration

Positive• Global interdependence• Increased trade• Increased knowledge of the

Earth

Negatives• Conflicts between regions,

countries and people• Exploitation and destruction

of native peoples• Slave trade