1. AGE OF EXPLORATION Mrs. Straka Unit 1, Chapter 2

2. THEORIES AND EVIDENCE  There are a lot of theories that say there were a bunch of different groups of people from Europe, Asia, Africa, etc. who may have visited the Americas prior to Columbus. There is no extensive proof.

3. THEORIES ABOUT HOW PEOPLE REACHED THE AMERICAS CONTINUED  * Land-bridge Theory: Thousands of years ago, glaciers (thick sheets of ice) stretched across Canada. The glaciers locked up water from the oceans, causing sea levels to fall and uncovering the land beneath the sea. This situation exposed a land bridge joining Siberia and Alaska. Bands of hunters might have crossed this land bridge from Asia to the Americas.

4. THEORIES CONTINUED  Coastal-route Theory: People might have reached North America by crossing icy arctic waters by boat.  Other Theories: People might have reached the Americas from Europe, Africa, or South Pacific islands.

5. THEORIES CONTINUED

6. EUROPEAN KNOWLEDGE PRIOR TO 1492

7. 3 MAJOR INFLUENCES FOR EXPEDITIONS Water route to Asia To spread Christianity Search for gold

8. VIKINGS  There is evidence of the arrival of a European group known as the Vikings.  Vikings: are known as sea going people who originate from the part of northern Europe known as Scandinavia.  Remains of vikings are found to back up the old Viking stories.

9. VIKINGS CONTINUED  Erik the Red (the founder of Norse settlement in Greenland ) This settlement lasted for more than 400 years He had a son named Leif Erikson.

10. LEIF ERIKSON  One of the most famous Vikings, Leif Erikson, and his crew of 35 other Vikings traveled from Greenland west in 1001AD. They explored the land and named in Vinland.  It was named Vinland because there was an abundance of grapes and vegetation.  Vinland only existed in myths for the next 500 years.

11. VINLAND  Vinland is the name given to the area of coastal North America where Leif Erikson landed 5 centuries before Columbus.  Vinland has no known precise location, but there are ruins in newfoundland that were discovered in the 60’s that correspond with Leif’s description of Vinland.  This is part of modern day Canada

12. CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS  Born 1451, Died 1506  Columbus grew up in a port on the west coast of Italy. In the 1470s he moved to Portugal, which is a big sailing country for Europe. In Portugal he studied maps, charts, and what people thought was beyond Europe This prepared him for his voyage to Asia. (He wanted to find a new route to Asia by going west).

13. COLUMBUS CONTINUED Portugal’s king did not like Christopher’s idea of going west to find an alternate route to Asia. He doesn’t think that Columbus thought it out correctly. Therefore, Portugal does not finance his trip. Everyone is skeptical of his plan. Columbus moves to Spain to try and setup there. Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand like his plan. Because they are skeptical it takes them six years to agree to finance his plan.

14. COLUMBUS SETS SAIL  In 1492, he made the first of 4 trips, landing on what he believed to be the Asian islands called the Indies. He called the people there, Indians. He also travelled to Cuba and Hispaniola.  3 ships – the Nina, the Pinta, the Santa Maria carried about 90 men.  Columbus predicted it would only take 21 days, but it took over a month. The crew was planning a mutiny until October 12, when land was finally spotted.

15. THE FIRST AMERICANS  “Indians” settled in the New World between 15,000 and 60,000 years ago.  North and South American societies built roads, trade networks, and irrigation systems.  Societies from Mexico and South were more organized than those of the north.

16. SPAIN BACKS MORE VOYAGES  Columbus reported that there was large amounts of gold in the land he called the Indies, which led Isabella and Ferdinand to make him governor of the land which he claimed for Spain.  He once again sailed for the West Indies in 1493 - This time he brought soldiers, settlers, and priests. (with the intention to convert the “Indians” to Christianity.)

17. 2 ND VOYAGE  Columbus arrived to find that the people he left behind were killed by the Indians.  He built another settlement and enslaved Indians to make them dig for gold.  Within a year Columbus sent many ships back to Spain with gold, trinkets, and captives.

18. 3 RD EXPEDITION  In 1498 Columbus reached South America and decided it was the Asian mainland.  After returning home with the news, Spain sends him on a 4 th voyage in 1502 to go back and try to claim the “Asian Mainland”.  He returns to Spain. Dies two years later. Still believing that he had reached Asia…

19. CONTINUING THE SEARCH FOR ASIA  An Italian explorer, Amerigo Vespucci that made the trip was convinced he was not in Asia. Upon his arrival home he wrote a letter describing the lands as something more full of people and animals than Europe, Asia or Africa. A German mapmaker labeled this region “land of Amerigo” on his maps. This was later shortened to America.

20. BALBOA  The Spanish continued to explore and colonize.  In 1510 Vasco Nunez de Balboa, a spanish colonist, explored the Carribean coast (now Panama).  He became the first European to set his eyes on the Pacific Ocean

21. MAGELLAN  In 1519 Ferdinand Magellan (Portuguese Explorer) set out to find an Atlantic Pacific Passage.  Magellan spent more than a year traveling looking for a strait. He eventually found the narrow passage. (Now called the Strait of Magellan)  He eventually died after he reached the Philippine Islands (in a battle). The survivors fled in two ships.

22.  One of the ships of the survivors finally reached Spain in 1522…three years after they started.  They were the first to circumnavigate the entire Earth.

23. COLUMBIAN EXCHANGE  The Columbian Exchange is a transfer of people, products, and ideas between the hemispheres.  Many changes of the CE were positive.  Europeans introduced cows, hogs, and other domestic animals as well as crops such as wheat and oats to the Americas  Negative effects on Americas: small pox, chicken pox, measles, and other diseases that killed the Native Americans.

24. COLUMBIAN EXCHANGE  Europe was introduced to llamas, turkeys, squirrels, and muskrats.  They also Europeans how to cultivate plants and animals.