1. AP World History: The Age of Exploration Where is our next frontier?
Period 3 – Period 4
Where is our next frontier?

2. I What was the Age of Exploration?
From the th centuries, Western Europe increased its exploration of the world.
This was due to
1. The Renaissance and Scientific Revolution increasing Europeans curiosity about the world
2. The Ottoman Turks blocked access to the Silk Road. Europeans needed to find an alternative route to the East for trade.
3. Newly formed European nation states competed for colonies overseas. This led to the new economic system of mercantilism.
Mercantilism is an economic system where the parent nation exploits the resources of its colonies.

3. II Improved Technology
Portolan Maps
Magnetic Compass
Caravel Ships
Astrolabe
Lines on portolan maps radiated out from compass points. Showed navigators how to get to key ports.
The magnetic compass was an improvement on the Chinese compass. Used an iron needle that aligns with the Earth’s north-south magnetic poles.
Caravel ships were built by the Portuguese and Spanish. Unlike medieval ships, they could go against the wind, and long distances.
Astrolabes were used since ancient times. Navigators looked through it at the sun or a star and determined its angle using the degrees marked on the instrument. Helped them determine the ship’s latitude and local time.

4. Caravel Ships

5. III The Early Explorers
Portuguese and Spanish explorers made the first European voyages into unknown waters during the Age of Exploration.

6. The Early Explorers Continued…
Henry “The Navigator”
(1394 – 1460)
Bartolomeu Dias
(1451 – 1500)
Vasco de Gama
(1460 – 1524)
1. Goal to conquer Muslim lands and trade routes, find gold, and explore West African coast
1. Created a naval school to make better maps & ships, and train for long voyages
2. Claimed the Azores, Madeira, and Canary islands off Western Africa
Goal to find a route to Asia. In 1488 he sailed around the Cape of Good Hope (the southern tip of Africa). Due to the intense wind he turned back.
In 1497 he sailed east from Europe, around Africa, then went on to India.

8. Prince Henry the Navigator
Statue of Prince Henry, Lisbon, Portugal
The Azores

9. Bartolomeu Dias
“João II, king of Portugal, had sent Bartolomeu Dias around Africa to India in 1487 with 3 ships. Dias' expedition party included six Africans who had been brought to Portugal by earlier explorers. Dias dropped off the Africans at different ports along the coastline of Africa with supplies. The last two Africans were left at a place the Portuguese sailors called Angra do Salto, probably in modern Angola, and the expedition's supply ship was left there under guard of nine men.In January 1488, as Dias' two ships sailed off the coast of South Africa, storms blew them away from the coast. Dias is thought to have ordered a turn to the south of about 28 degrees, probably because he had prior knowledge of southeasterly winds that would take him around the tip of Africa and keep his ships from being dashed on the rocky shoreline. ..
The Cape of Good Hope

10. Bartolomeu Dias Continued…
The crew spotted landfall on February 3, 1488, about 300 miles east of present-day Cape of Good Hope. From the shoreline, indigenous Khoikhoi pelted Dias' ships with stones until an arrow fired by either Dias or one of his men felled a tribesman. Dias ventured further along the coastline, but his crew was nervous about the dwindling food supplies and urged him to turn back. As mutiny loomed, Dias appointed a council to decide the matter. The members came to the agreement that they would permit him to sail another three days, then turn back. Dias and his crew were aghast to find that only three of the nine men left guarding the food ship at Agra do Sato had survived repeated attacks by locals; a seventh man died on the journey home. In Lisbon, after 15 months at sea and a journey of nearly 16,000 miles, the returning mariners were met by triumphant crowds. Despite his immense achievement, Dias was never again put in a position of authority.”

11. Excerpt from Vasco de Gama’s Journal
On the following day (November 10) fourteen or fifteen natives came to where our ship lay. The captain-major landed and showed them a variety of merchandise, with the view of finding out whether such things were to be found in their country. This merchandise included cinnamon, cloves, seed-pearls, gold, and many other things, but it was evident that they had no knowledge whatever of such articles, and they were consequently given round bells and tin rings.

12. Portugal and Spain’s 1st Explorers Continued…
Ferdinand Magellan
(1480 – 1521)
1. From Portugal. His goal was to circumnavigate (sail around) the world.
2. He set sail August 10, 1519 with 5 ships and 251 men.
3. In 1521 Magellan was killed in the Philippines.
4. In 1522 one ship returned with 18 survivors.
Christopher Columbus
(1451 – 1506)
1. Born in Genoa, Italy
2. With financing from Spain, he sailed 3 ships west, looking for India. *He knew the earth was round.
3. He landed in the Bahamas, but thought he was in India.
4. Columbus opened up exploration and trade to the “New World”.
James Cook
( )
Led 3 expeditions to the Pacific.
Charted East Australia and New Zealand. Added Hawaii to maps. Explored Alaska and almost made it to Antarctica!
Searched for a Northwest Passage linking the Atlantic and Pacific

13. Magellan
“… on the last day of March of the year 1520 at the Port of St. Julian… three of the ships rose up against the Captain-major [Magellan]… [the] treasurer of the whole fleet, and named Luis de Mendo‡a; he was killed in his own ship by stabs with a dagger by the chief constable of the fleet, who was sent to do this by Fernando de Magelhaes [i.e., Magellan] in a boat with certain men. The said three ships having thus been recovered, five days later Fernando de Magelhaes ordered Gaspar de Queixada to be decapitated and quartered; he was captain of one of the ships, and was one of those who had mutinied.” – Anonymous Genoese Witness, modern history sourcebook

14. James Cook
The first well-documented evidence for the existence of a frozen southern continent came from the second expedition of Captain James Cook beginning in He did not actually see the continent but he did cross the Antarctic Circle (67° South Latitude) and saw the icebergs and frigid waters of the far southern ocean. Southpole.com

15. Captain James Cook
“RULES to be observe’d by every person in or belonging to His Majestys Bark the Endeavour, for the better establishing a regular and uniform Trade for Provisions &c with the Inhabitants of Georges Island. 1st To endeavour by every fair means to cultivate a friendship with the Natives and to treat them with all imaginable humanity.” on trade in Tahiti “The bodies of both sexes are marked with black stains called Amoco, by the same method that is used at Otaheite, and called Tattowing; but the men are more marked, and the women less [T]he men, on the contrary, seem to add something every year to the ornaments of the last, so that some of them, who appeared to be of an advanced age, were almost covered from head to foot.” on New Zealand Maori Tattoos

16. Syphilis and Scurvy; Diseases You Do Not Want to Have
Syphilis is a deadly STD that was spread by Natives of the New World to European explorers.
Scurvy is a disease due to a lack of vitamin C. Sailors prevented it by eating limes or lemons.

17. IV The Global Slave Trade
The word “slave” is derived from the word “Slav”. The Slavs (people who now live in Russia and Eastern Europe) were slaves in Ancient Rome.
B) Most ancient civilizations enslaved prisoners of war or debtors. Also, slaves were not treated equally. While many lived harsh lives, some were able to rise in status and wealth.
Left: Ancient Roman Slave Medallion
Right: Carving of Ancient Egyptian Slaves Rowing

18. The Global Slave Trade Continued…
C) The Portuguese began using Africans as slaves when they began to explore the west coast of Africa in the 15th century. They were soon followed by the Spanish, Dutch, English, and French.
D) Europeans used slaves to work on plantations (large farm estates), in mines or in homes as servants.
E) As Europeans seldom went into Africa’s interior, they relied on African slave traders to seize captives and bring them to coastal trading forts. The slaves were exchanged for manufactured European goods.
Slave Fortress, Ghana, west Africa

19. Slave Holding Chamber, Zanzibar

21. The Global Slave Trade Continued…
F) Slaves were considered to be property. To justify the harsh treatment of slaves, Europeans adopted the belief that Africans were biologically inferior. G) Slavery continued to expand due to - Economic benefits of triangular trade and free labor - Increasing racism
Triangular trade was a pattern of colonial trade between ports in Africa, the American colonies, and Europe. It was based on mercantilism; usually the mother country benefited the most.

22. The Global Slave Trade Continued…
H) The Middle Passage describes the 2nd leg of a 3 leg voyage of a slave ship. Leg One: Began in Europe. Cargo often included guns, gunpowder, iron, cloth, and alcohol. Leg Two: The ship landed at a West African port. The cargo from Europe was exchanged for African slaves. The slaves were branded with an iron and chained together, naked. The ship then sailed to the Americas, where the slaves (who survived) were exchanged for sugar, tobacco, or other goods. Leg Three: The slave ship returned to Europe. Thousands of slaves died during the Middle Passage from disease, starvation, or even murder. The film Amistad depicts slave owners throwing chained Africans overboard, as there was too much weight on the ship. The survivors were auctioned off as property.

23. The Global Slave Trade Continued…
I) Captured far from the African coast when he was a boy of 11, Olaudah Equiano was sold into slavery, later acquired his freedom, and, in 1789, wrote his widely-read autobiography, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African. –PBS.com
“…The closeness of the place, and the heat of the climate, added to the number in the ship, which was so crowded that each had scarcely room to turn himself, almost suffocated us. This produced copious perspirations, so that the air soon became unfit for respiration, from a variety of loathsome smells, and brought on a sickness among the slaves, of which many died... This wretched situation was again aggravated by the gaffing of the chains… and the filth of the necessary tubs, into which the children often fell, and were almost suffocated. The shrieks of the women, and the groans of the dying, rendered the whole a scene of horror almost inconceivable...” Equiano, 1789

24. The Global Slave Trade Continued…
J) Slave resistance: 1. Slaves were deliberately put on ships with slaves who spoke different languages to limit communication and the possibility of a revolt 2. Alfonso I, ruler of the Kingdom of Kongo was a converted Christian. He wanted to continue contact with Europe but hated the concept of slavery. He wrote a letter to Portugal, asking to end the slave trade. His attempt failed.
"Each day the traders are kidnapping our people - children of this country, sons of our nobles and vassals, even people of our own family… Many of our subjects eagerly lust after Portuguese merchandise that your subjects have brought into our domains. To satisfy this… they seize many of our black free subjects.... They sell them. After having taken these prisoners [to the coast] secretly or at night..... As soon as the captives are in the hands of white men they are branded with a red-hot iron.” – Alfonso I, 1526

25. V European Presence Increases in Africa
A) By the early 17th century, the Portuguese, British, Dutch and French had forts along the west coast of Africa. B) 1652 the Dutch built Cape Town in southern Africa. It served as a base to send trade ships to the East Indies. - This began a system of racial segregation in South Africa that only became illegal in the 1990s.
Capetown,
South Africa

26. VI The Islamic Slave Trade in East Africa
In East Africa a slave trade was well established before the Europeans arrived on the scene. It was driven by the sultanates of the Middle East. African slaves ended up as sailors in Persia, pearl divers in the Gulf, soldiers in the Omani army and workers on the salt pans of Mesopotamia (modern Iraq). Many people were domestic slaves, working in rich households. Women were taken as sex slaves. Arab traders began to settle among the Africans of the coast, resulting in the emergence of a people and culture known as Swahili. There was also a huge demand for ivory, and slaves were used as porters to carry it. There were three main reasons why more slaves were required: 1. The clove plantations on Zanzibar and Pemba set up by Sultan Seyyid Said, needed labor. 2. Brazilian traders were finding it difficult to operate in West Africa because the British navy was intercepting slave ships. The Brazilians made the journey round the Cape of Good Hope, taking slaves from the Zambezi valley and Mozambique. 3. The French had started up sugar and coffee plantations in Mauritius and Reunion.

27. The Islamic Slave Trade in East Africa Continued…
A number of different people -Arabs and Africans - were involved in supplying slaves from the interior, as well as transporting ivory… The most famous trader of all was Tippu Tip, (Hamed bin Mohammed) a Swahili Arab son of a trader, and grandson of an African slave. He was born in Zanzibar of African Arab parentage and went on to establish a base West of Lake Tanganyika, linking up with Msiri. He and his men operated in an area stretching over a thousand miles from inland to the coast.
Tippu Tip

29. Zanzibar Slave Memorial

30. VII Slavery Today
A) Even though slavery is illegal today throughout the world, slavery unfortunately still exists. B) In 1981, Mauritania became the last nation in the world to abolish slavery. Even though thousands are still enslaved, only one slave master has been successfully prosecuted.
Moulkheir Mint Yarba escaped slavery in 2010 in Mauritania. Per capita, Mauritania has more slaves than any other nation in the world today, and was the last nation to make slavery illegal in 2007.

31. HW Questions
What factors allowed for the Age of Exploration? What were the goals of the earliest European explorers?
Which two European explorers do you think had the greatest impact on global history? Why?
Is the quote by Vasco de Gama reliable? Why or why not?
Were the consequences of the Age of Exploration more negative or positive? Explain.
Did the slave trade change from ancient times to the Age of Exploration? If so, how and why?
Why didn’t more slaves fight back? Why do you think Alfonso I’s letter was not effective?
Who deserves the most blame for the African slave trade? Who deserves the most blame for the Islamic slave trade?
Is it fair to criticize historical slavery when we are coming from a 2015 perspective?
Why does slavery still exist? How can we stop it?