Unit 3

• Marco Polo (1251-1325):

  • Earliest and most famous European traveler to Asia
  • Member of a renowned Venetian family of merchants
  • Reached Peking in 1275, welcomed by Emperor Kublai Khan
  • Wrote a book about his adventures in the Far East, which became a best seller
• Prince Henry the Navigator (1394-1460):

  • Set up a school for sailors and shipbuilders in Lisbon
  • Encouraged Portuguese sailors to explore the African coast to reach the Indian Ocean
  • Bartholomew Diaz (1488) sailed round the Cape of Good Hope
  • Vasco da Gama (1497-99) sailed around Africa and reached India
  • In 1513, Portuguese ships reached the port of Canton in China
• Christopher Columbus (1451-1506):

  • Genoese sailor who convinced Queen Isabella of Spain to finance his voyage across the Atlantic
  • Sailed from Cadiz on 3rd August, 1492
  • Thought he reached India but discovered the West Indies in the Caribbean Sea
  • His voyage led to the division of the discovered world between Spain and Portugal
• Amerigo Vespucci:

  • Italian explorer who named the New World after discovering the mouth of the Amazon River in 1499
  • Referred to it as the Mundus Novus in his letters to Europe
  • A German geographer labeled it as America in his memory in 1507
• John Cabot:

  • English explorer who sailed across the Atlantic and discovered Newfoundland in 1498
• Jacques Cartier:

  • French explorer who discovered the St Lawrence River in Canada
• Isabella of Castile:

  • Queen of Spain who financed Christopher Columbus' voyage across the Atlantic
• In 1494, the Pope divided the discovered world between Spain and Portugal, leading to conflicts between other European nations
• Ferdinand Magellan:

  • Portuguese explorer in the service of the King of Spain
  • Sailed around the globe from west to east between 1519-21
• The term 'West Indies' originated from Christopher Columbus' belief that he had reached India, leading to the misnaming of the Caribbean islands
• The term 'New World' was given by Amerigo Vespucci after his discovery, while the name 'America' was labeled by a German geographer in 1507
• European countries gained economic advantages from the exploration and colonization of new lands, importing valuable goods and increasing trade
• Countries of Western Europe facing the Atlantic that gained most from the economic advantages of the great discoveries: France, England, Holland, Spain, Portugal
• In the 17th century, Spain and Portugal declined while England, France, and Holland became richer and more powerful
• England, France, and Holland became known as maritime powers due to their military strength and economic prosperity resting on maritime trade between Europe and newly discovered lands
• Gerardus Mercator invented the Mercator projection map, a flat map of the world
• Astronomy, zoology, botany, and geology developed as branches of modern science due to the discovery of new lands
• New drugs were made from plants brought from other parts of the world
• The Catholic Church sent missionary Jesuit priests to convert pagan tribes to Christianity
• Voyages of discovery and exploration continued in later centuries, with explorers like Tasman and Captain James Cook
• The African Slave Trade began with the Portuguese in 1444, followed by England, France, and Holland in the Atlantic slave trade
• European nations argued that Black African peoples were racially inferior to justify keeping them as slaves and forcing them to do heavy and dangerous jobs
• The slave trade was abolished in Western Europe through the efforts of the anti-slavery movement, with Britain leading the way
• Slavery was abolished in the United States after the American Civil War, with President Abraham Lincoln freeing all black slaves
• The first African slaves were taken to the colony of Virginia in 1619
• Abolitionists and religious groups like Quakers, Methodists, and Presbyterians worked for the abolition of slavery in the United States
• It was in the 1960s that White Americans agreed to give equal rights to Black Americans, following the efforts of President John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King
• The African Slave Trade began in 1444 with the Portuguese
• It began due to the capture and sale of African people by Arab traders and Spanish settlers for labor in mines and other industries
• The first European states to organize the slave trade were Portugal and Spain
• Slaves in the American colonies were used for various jobs, including domestic service, trade, fieldwork, and mining
• White Europeans justified slavery by law by arguing that Black Africans were racially inferior
• It was convenient for Europeans to argue this way to justify keeping Black Africans as slaves and exploiting their labor
• The founder of the anti-slave movement in Britain was William Wilberforce
• Opponents of slavery in the United States were known as Abolitionists
• Slaves in the North American colonies were treated harshly, with some slave owners punishing them severely for disobedience or escape attempts
• In the case of single-celled organisms, substances can easily enter the cell due to a short distance. In multicellular organisms, the distance is larger because of a higher surface area to volume ratio
• Multicellular organisms require specialised exchange surfaces for efficient gas exchange of carbon dioxide and oxygen due to their higher surface area to volume ratio