1. God, Glory, Gold: The Age of Exploration

2. European exploration/expansion characterized by 3 qualities
After the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks (1453) Europe was cut off from trade. Europe looked for an alternative trade route by sea.
European exploration/expansion characterized by 3 qualities
God: Spread the Christian faith to all non-believers
Glory: Travel the world, see exotic sites, do amazing things, be remembered
Gold: Find and bring back the riches of the rest of the world and with it, power.
Portugal: Takes lead in sending out expeditions into the world beginning in 1420.
Prince Henry the Navigator sent ships along the west coast of Africa, discovering new GOLD sites. The Gold Coast.
Bartholomeu Dias sails around the southern tip of Africa in Called the Cape of Good Hope
Vasco Da Gama sails around tip of Africa and sails to India, landing in 1498
Alfonso Albuquerque sails to Melaka in Southeast Asia Weakens Arab control of spice trade, gives Portugal more direct access to the Spice Islands of Asia.
* Vasco makes a profit of several thousand percent

3. Spanish: Search for a western route to Asia.
Christopher Columbus convinced queen Isabella of Spain to finance a trip West. Reaches the Americas in landing in the Caribbean islands.
Led 3 more voyages and believes he in on the outskirts of India, calls the area West Indies and the people Indians.
Portuguese ask the Pope to step in, fearing that their hold over Asian spice markets is in danger from the Spanish.
Treaty of Tordesillas – Imaginary line drawn through modern day Brazil. Portuguese get everything East of the line and Spanish get everything West of the line. Nobody realizes that the Americas weren’t Asia yet. Treaty is largely ignored by all other European nations.
Further Exploration
Amerigo Vespucci explores and discovers that the land thought to be Eastern Asia was actually the Americas. Maps of the Americas with his name on them leads to the lands being called “America”.
Ferdinand Magellan circumnavigated the world by sailing West down tip of South America and up African coast

4. Spanish turn from exploring to conquering.
Hernando Cortes sailed to modern day Mexico and conquered the Aztec empire. Had only a small force of some hundreds.
Francisco Pizarro travels to modern day Peru and conquers the Inca empire with only about 200 men.
Advantages of the Spanish:
Spanish have better technology including heavy armor, firearms, horses, and economies that could support large military campaigns
Both Incas and Aztecs had bitter enemies that were happy to make alliances with the Spanish
Disease: The Natives had no natural immunities to European diseases and both civilizations experienced smallpox epidemics that weakened them.
Columbian Exchange: The Old World and the New World trade routes that permanently connected the two Included the trade of animals, plants, raw and finished products
* Cortes was kicked out by rebelling Aztecs led by Cuauhtémoc. Spanish returned 1 year later