From the 1400s to the 1600s, Europeans ventured out to
explore what was to them the unknown world in an effort to reap the profits of trade and
colonization.
The BIG Idea
Objective 2European Motivations
A. Muslims controlled many trade routes.B. Profit through trade in goods such as
gold, silver, silks, sugar, and spices.C. Spread of Christianity: missionaries,
Bartolome de las Casas speaks out against enslavement and mistreatment of native peoples
Objective 2AEuropean Motivations
First, eastern middlemen, mainly Muslims, controlled the overland trade routes from Asia to Europe.
Objective 2BEuropean Motivations
Profit through trade in goods such as gold, silver, silks, sugar, and spices.
Objective 3Geography of the spice trade
A. The Moluccas, also known as the “Spice Islands”: part of present-day Indonesia
B. Locate the region known as Indochina, the Malay Peninsula, the Philippines.
C. Definition of “archipelago”D. “Ring of Fire”: earthquakes and
volcanic activity
Objective 3Geography of the spice trade
A. The Moluccas, also known as the “Spice Islands”: part of present-day Indonesia
Objective 3Geography of
the spice tradeB. Locate the region known as Indochina, the Malay Peninsula, the Philippines.
Objective 3Geography of the spice trade
D. “Ring of Fire”: earthquakes and volcanic activityWRONG
ONE!!
Objective 4European exploration, trade, and colonization
A. PortugalB. SpainC. England and FranceD. Holland (The Netherlands)
Prince Henry 1394-1460• Prince Henry established
a school for the study of navigation, mapmaking, and shipbuilding in 1420.
• His goal was to find a route to the rich spice trade of the Indies and to explore the west coast of Africa.
Designing New Ships
• The ships of the day were too slow and too heavy to make long ocean voyages.
• Under Prince Henry’s direction, a new and lighter ship was developed, the caravel, which would allow sea captains to sail further and faster.
Caravels
• The caravel was an improvement on older ships because it could sail very fast and also sail well into the wind.
• Caravels had 2 or 3 masts with square sails or triangular sails.
• They were up to about 65 feet long and could carry roughly 130 tons of cargo.
Exploring the Coast of Africa
• 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.
A Lasting Legacy
• Although Prince Henry never sailed on the expeditions, the voyages that he paid for in the mid-1400s helped launch Portugal into the front of the race to find a sea route to the Indies.
Bartolomeu Dias 1487-1488
• Bartolomeu Dias became the first to sail all the way around the southern tip of Africa to the Cape of Good Hope.
• His ship was battered by fierce storms, his sailors grew hungry, sick, and frightened.
• Dias wanted to sail to India, but his sailors made him return to Portugal.
Vasco da Gama 1497-1499
• Almost 10 years after Dias reached the tip of Africa, Vasco da Gama sailed around the Cape of Good Hope to India.
• He took four ships and 170 men.• He sailed back to Portugal with his ship full of
spices but only returned with 55 of his sailors.• Da Gama finally found a sea route to Asia.
Objective 4European
Exploration, trade, and
colonizationB. SpainMagellan and the Circumnavigation of the Globe
Objective 4European
exploration, trade, and
colonizationC. England and
France
Search for the
Northwest Passage
Objective 4European
exploration, trade, and
colonizationC. England and
France
English Colonies in North America
Objective 4European
exploration, trade, and
colonizationC. England and
France
Establishment of the
Thirteen English
Colonies in North America
Objective 4European
exploration, trade, and
colonizationC. England and
France
English Colonies in the West
Indies
Objective 4European
exploration, trade, and
colonizationC. England and
France
French Colonies in
North America
Objective 4European
exploration, trade, and
colonizationC. England and
France
French Colonies in the West
Indies
Objective 4European
exploration, trade, and
colonizationC. England and
France
Trading Posts in
India
Objective 4European
exploration, trade, and
colonizationD. Holland (The Netherlands)
The Portuguese may have been the first to seek out the maritime route to Asia, but inadequate finances, the unprecedented novelty of their enterprise, and aggressive competition from other countries made it difficult for the Portuguese to hold on to their advantages.
Objective 4European
exploration, trade, and
colonizationD. Holland (The Netherlands)
Dutch versus Portuguese in Africa and the
East Indies
Objective 4European
exploration, trade, and
colonizationD. Holland (The Netherlands)
Cape Colony and South
Africa
Objective 5The sugar trade
A. African slaves on Portuguese sugar plantations on islands off West African coast, such as Sao Tome
B. Sugar plantations on Caribbean islandsC. West Indies: Cuba, Puerto Rico, The
Bahamas, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica
Objective 5The sugar trade
A. African slaves on Portuguese sugar plantations on islands off West African coast, such as Sao Tome
Objective 5The sugar trade
C. West Indies: Cuba, Puerto Rico, The Bahamas, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica
Objective 6Transatlantic slave trade: the
“triangular trade” from Europe to Africa to colonies in the
Caribbean and the AmericasA. The “Slave Coast” in West AfricaB. The Middle Passage
Objective 6Transatlantic slave trade:
the “triangular trade” from Europe to Africa to colonies
in the Caribbean and the Americas
A. The “Slave Coast” in West Africa