How did the Age of Exploration start?

Once Europeans discovered spices and silk in Asia, the Age of Exploration would begin.

Explorers

Who is Prince Henry “The Navigator”?

Prince Henry the Navigator of Portugal (1394 – 1460) Prince Henry established a school for the study of the arts of navigation, mapmaking, and shipbuilding. This would allow sailors to better guide their ships and to come up with new ship designs. Under his direction, a new and lighter ship was developed, the caravel, which would allow sea captains to sail further and faster. Farthest exploration at the time of his death.

Who is Ferdinand Magellan ?

He wanted to find a shorter route to Asia by going west. He set sail with five ships—the Santiago, the San Antonio, the Conception, the Trinidad, and the Victoria. He wanted to find a shorter route to Asia by going west. The trip was sponsored by Spain. He became known as the first person to circumnavigate the world. He was killed in the Philippine islands

September 9, 1522 One of Magellan’s commanders, Juan Sebastian del Cano, completes the trip, returning to Seville. Out of the five ships that began the journey, only one ship made the voyage around the world. The three year voyage was completed by 18 of the original 265 men. He is known as the first explorer to lead an expedition around the world.

Reasons for Exploration

What motivated the explorers to explore?

Spices In the 1400s, there was no refrigeration. To prevent meat from spoiling, people drowned their meat in salt to preserve and dry it (like beef jerky). They also used a lot of spices like pepper to cover up the taste of the salted or spoiled meat.

Spices Unfortunately for Europeans, these spices did not grow anywhere in Europe. They were only found in Asian countries. It was very difficult to get the spices from Asia to Europe over land so spices became very expensive.

Spices Several European rulers finally decided to try to find a new route-a sea route. If a country could find a way to get these valuable spices to Europe, the rulers would be very rich.

What you need to know about Spices Europeans needed a sea route to get spices cheaper.

Gold Gold was a hot item that explorers were looking for, but remember that it is really wealth, not just literal gold that explorers were after.

What you need to know about gold Gold would bring wealth and power to whatever country found it.

Larger Empires Some European rulers, especially the King of Spain and the King of Portugal, wanted to claim as much land as they could. They wanted to take all of the natural resources from the new land and use the people that lived there as slaves to do their work.

What you need to know about larger empires Countries would do anything to expand their empire to new places. Larger empire = More power

Spread Christianity In the late 1400s, there was only one religion in Europe, Christianity. The European rulers were very religious. They wanted to convert everyone to Christianity.

What you need to know about spread Christianity Europeans wanted to spread Christianity to the new places they explored.

The 3 Gs Gold God Glory