Age of Exploration

• Columbus's First Voyage

  Columbus sets sail from Spain in 1492 with three ships, the Santa Maria, Nina, and Pinta, and lands in Guane, Cuba.
• Age of Exploration


  Also called the Age of Discovery, began in the 1400s and continued through the 1600s, when European nations began exploring the world and discovering new routes to India, the Far East, and the Americas
• The Age of Exploration took place at the same time as the Renaissance
• In 1400, only coasts were known as sailors were afraid to sail into unknown waters
• Atlantic & Mediterranean coasts were well explored
• There was disagreement & confusion over the shape of the world, with some saying it was flat and others saying it was round
• Why did exploration begin at this time?

  The simple answer is money. Although, some individual explorers wanted to gain fame or experience adventure, the main purpose of an expedition was to make money. The explorers also wanted fame. The governments wanted more power
• How did expeditions make money?

  1. Expeditions made money primarily by discovering new trade routes for their nations

  2. When the Ottoman Empire captured Constantinople in 1453, many existing trade routes to India and China were shut down, so new expeditions tried to discover oceangoing routes to India and the Far East

  3. Some expeditions became rich by discovering gold and silver, such as the Spanish expeditions to the Americas

  4. They also found new land where colonies could be established and crops such as sugar, cotton, and tobacco could be grown
• New trade routes brought in expensive products such as spices and silk
• The Arabs and the Italians had a monopoly on these trade routes, and other countries such as Spain and Portugal wanted to find new routes to Asia too
• Marco Polo mapped roads to China (Cathay) in the 1200s, and his book The Travels of Marco Polo encouraged explorers to find new routes to the great wealth in the East
• Religion


  Europeans wanted to defeat and conquer Muslims, and the explorers wanted to convert people to Christianity. Priests often travelled to preach Christianity
• New ships and instruments were then produced
• Beliefs about the world in 1400


  • The earth was flat
  • It had people with strange shapes
  • The seas further south were boiling
  • The seas were full of monsters
  • The world is smaller than it is
• New ships


  • Caravels had lateen sails (triangular) that enabled them to sail into the wind and had strong heavy clinker-built hulls, which could survive in the rough seas
• Navigational instruments


  • Astrolabe
  • Quadrant
  • Compass
  • Portolan charts
  • Swinging the lead
  • The log
• Latitude


  Used to show location in relation to the equator
• Longitude


  Used to show location in relation to the poles
• By using a combination of latitude and longitude, it was possible to determine exact location
• Later developments included the chronometer and sextant
• Life on board ship

  • Officers came from better-off classes, while the sailors came from poorer classes
  • At the start of the voyage more sailors were taken on board than needed, as the captain knew many would die
  • Food was mainly dry and salted
  • Many sailors got scurvy due to a lack of vitamin C in their diet
  • There were prayers in the morning and in the evening
  • Sailors spent the day mending sails, repairing the ship or helping with navigation
  • On later voyages sailors used hammocks, which Europeans saw for the first time in the New World
  • Discipline was strict, and punishment was severe
• Prince Henry the Navigator


  He set up a school for explorers at Sagres Bay at the southern tip of Portugal, and Portuguese explorers reached Sierra Leone and discovered many islands and coasts in Africa
• Vasco da Gama


  • Sailed to India by sea, reached Calicut after a 2-year voyage, and the Portuguese got control of this valuable sea route, setting up trading posts
• Christopher Columbus

  • Born in Genoa, believed the world was round, wanted to sail west to China and Japan, underestimated the distance by 3, failed to get support in England and Portugal, got support from Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, made 3 voyages, discovered the Bahamas, Cuba, and Hispaniola, brought back gold, pineapples, parrots and 6 'Indians', founded colonies, but was eventually brought back in chains due to his cruelty against the natives
• Hernando Cortés


  • Conquistador, aimed for gold and silver, got help from other tribes to attack the Aztecs, used horses which were new to the natives, captured Tenochtitlan (Mexico City), and slaughtered the Aztecs
• Francisco Pizarro


  • Conquistador, aimed for gold and silver, captured the Inca emperor Atahualpa, took Cuzco the capital city, but was eventually killed by his own men
• The Aztec and Inca civilisations vanished, and the Conquistadors took their land and forced them to work on the land or in mines
• The Spanish imposed Christianity on the native peoples
• In North America, the British and French took land from the natives
• Millions of Americans died from European spread diseases, over-work and massacres
• Europeans began to import slaves to fill 'the gap', leading to the Slave trade, which forced millions of Africans to go to America
• European languages are spoken in America now
• The explorations created great wealth for Europe, with many new products like potatoes, tomatoes, turkeys, cotton, maize, tobacco and chocolate, as well as gold and silver from the New World
• The explorations opened up opportunities for trade and allowed European countries to create empires in Asia, Africa and America
• Many Europeans emigrated to the new lands discovered
• The Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494 divided the newly discovered lands between Spain and Portugal to avoid conflict
• Consequences of Age of Exploration


  • Economic: Wealth and power were concentrated among the wealthy and powerful, with many common people struggling to make a living. • Cultural: The transplantation of European cultures to the Americas led to the destruction of indigenous cultures and civilizations. • Environmental: Deforestation, overhunting, and soil erosion devastated the ecosystems of the New World. • Social: The exploitation of indigenous peoples and the transatlantic slave trade caused immense suffering and trauma.