EXPLORATION AND VOYAGES OF DISCOVERY

• FACTORS

  • TRADE -Merchants began to look for new places to trade in, due to Spanish conflict. Merchants exploited the slave trade to lay the foundations of the Triangular Trade. John Hawkins first brought enslaved Africans in 1562 to sell to Spanish colonists. He brought back valuable items like ginger and sugar to sell in England
  • WEALTH - Explorers reported back to England about the treasures available in the Americas. The potential profits from these markets persuaded investors to fund voyages to the Americas. Provided an opportunity to discover more wealth, as much of America was unexplored
• FACTORS

  • NEW ROUTES - Explorers wanted to find a new passage to the Far East. They believed that a faster route existed around North America. This was called the North-West Passage. Although the passage was not discovered until 1845, it inspired Elizabethan explorers to study the coastline of America
• QUADRANTS AND ASTROLABES

  • These devices used the position of the stars to help sailors know where their ship was located in the ocean.
  • DIFFERENCE: Astrolabes were circular and quadrants were quarter circles.