1. The Age of Exploration

2. Factors for Exploration
Economic Factors:
Expansion of International Trade
Traveling from the Middle East to Africa was dangerous so countries wanted to look for alternative routes that were not so dangerous.
Merchants brought spices from the far east to Europe to trade for profit (money).
Other Europeans wanted more goods from the East without the added expense charge by the middle man.
Because of the Leadership of Prince Henry and their location on the Atlantic Ocean, Portugal was the first to seek a water route to Asia.
Political Factors:
1. Competition Between Nations
England and other countries in Europe became interested in the New World, especially since the Spanish found gold and silver that made them the most powerful nation in Europe.
English Monarchs began to send explorers to the New World and in the next few centuries they would become the dominant country in the settlement of North American

3. Factors for Exploration
Technological Factors:
Technology helped the explorers
Advancements in shipbuilding included construction of the caravel, which was a smaller and faster ship with triangular sails that could sail in to the wind.
The Astrolabe
Developed in the 1100’s
Measured the height of the stars in the sky
The astrolabe was used with a chart of stars to help the explorers find the ship’s latitude
Compass
Shows which direction the ships are traveling
The Sextant
Developed by John Bird in 1759
Used two mirrors and a movable arm to precisely measure the angles of the stars in the sky.
The sextant helped navigation and mapmaking became more accurate.

4. Navigational Tools The Astrolabe – The Compass -
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The Caravel –
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The Compass -
Cartography – map making skills

5. With your table…. Why were navigational tools important?
Give at least one example from what you have learned and be ready to share with the class.

6. Early Explorers
Summarize the accomplishments of the Vikings, the Portuguese, Spanish, English and French explorers; including, leif erikson, Columbus, hernando de soto, Magellan, henry Hudson, john cabot, and la sale.

7. Leif Erikson
Erikson was a Viking from Greenland who sailed the northern Atlantic Ocean (1000 AD).
He settled briefly in North America, which he called Vinland.
The Vikings’ combative (ready or eager to fight) relationship with other Europeans however, did not allow them to share their discovery, so North America remained unknown to most Europeans.

8. Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus is said to be the first person who founded America.
He was an Italian sailor who thought that sailing West would save time.
In August 1492 the King and Queen of Spain agreed to pay for his voyage.
After two months, Columbus and his crew sighted land.
They thought they had reached the Indies in Asia, but it turns out, they reached a tiny island off the coast of North America.

9. The Columbian Exchange
Columbus called the people who lived on this island “Indios” which is Spanish for Indian. However, this group of people already had a name. They were called the Taino.
The Taino and Columbus offered gifts to each other and Columbus took these gifts back to Spain.
This was the beginning of the Columbian Exchange.
The movement of people, plants, animals and diseases across the Atlantic Ocean.
The new foods, such as corn, tomatoes and potatoes made the European diet healthier.
The exchange also allowed European foods and animals to be introduced to North America such as horses and sheep’s wool. However, it also brought germs such as measles and smallpox.

10. Hernando de Soto
Hernando de Soto was a Spanish explorer and conquistador who participated in the conquests of Central America and Peru and discovered the Mississippi River.
He explored throughout the southeastern part of North America.
As a result, Spanish explorers claimed Florida and the southwest region of what is today the United States and called all of this land for Spain.
-de-soto-38469

11. The Aztec Empire
Other Spanish explorers came to the Americas after Columbus.
Herman Cortes landed in Central America in 1519 with more than 500 conquistadors (Spanish conquerors).
They were very impressed with the city’s size, huge population, riches and architecture. The Native Americans there had never seen white skin, never heard a gun being fired and had never seen horses.
Montezuma II, the Aztec ruler welcomed Cortes and his men. However, Cortes eventually took Montezuma prisoner and demanded gold for his freedom.
The Aztec refused and drove the Spanish away.
However, Montezuma was killed in the violence.
Later, smallpox killed tens of thousands of Aztecs.
Cortes came back to ultimately destroy Tenochitian.

12. John Cabot
Cabot was an Italian who was the first person to search for the Northwest Passage, which is a shorter route through North America to the Pacific Ocean. Columbus had tried to search for this same route, but instead found two large continents!
He sailed for England in 1479 and landed on what is now called Newfoundland, off the coast of Canada.
He did not find a shortcut, but he did find land with an abundance of fish!
After Cabot’s voyage, England was worried about wars at home, so they ended exploration for a while. When English sailors returned to the continent, they focused on building settlements.

13. Ferdinand Magellan
Magellan set out from Spain in 1519 with a fleet of five ships to discover a western sea route to the Spice Islands. He sailed for Portugal.
En route he discovered what is now known as the Strait of Magellan and became the first European to cross the Pacific Ocean.
The voyage was long and dangerous, and only one ship returned home three years later.
Although it was laden with valuable spices from the East, only 18 of the fleet’s original crew of returned with the ship.
Magellan himself was killed in battle on the voyage.

14. French and Dutch Exploration
Giovanni da Verrazano –
French explorer
Henry Hudson –
Dutch Explorer
Sailed for France in 1525.
Went from what is now North Carolina to the mouth of the Hudson River.
Was an Englishman who sailed south from what is now Maine along the coast of North America in He sailed for the Netherlands.
The Dutch East India Company paid for his voyage.
In 1610 he took a second voyage which took Hudson farther north. However, when winter came, the ship froze in ice. It was stuck!
When spring came, they tried to continue, but where tired, hungry and ready to go home. The crew too over the ship, and Hudson, his son and 8 men where put on a boat and never seen again.

15. Henry Hudson’s Voyage

16. Rene Robert de La Salle La Salle explored for France.
He explored the Mississippi River to its mouth in the Gulf of Mexico and named the area Louisiana, claiming it for France.
The French also explorers also explored the St. Lawrence River, the headwaters and the length of the Mississippi River to what is now New Orleans.
The French claimed this land as New France.