Section 1

Voyages of Discovery

Main Idea: During the 1400s and 1500s European explorers sailed to unknown lands

Foundations

            -Renaissance = new ideas, new thinking, new inventions

            -Reasons for exploration:

                        -Money

                                    -Spices, silk, etc from Asia were desirable and expensive

                                                -Explorers tried to find faster routes

                        -Fame and glory

                        -Spread Christianity

                        -Curiosity

            -Technological advances

                        -Compass

                        -Astrolabe (calculate position based on the sun and stars)

                        -Better ships

                                    -Caravel (fast and light)

Explorers from Portugal and Spain

            -Prince Henry the Navigator (Portugal)

                        -Helped support explorers (school for sailors)

                        -Wanted to find a water route around Africa to Asia

            -Bartolomeu Dias (1488) (Portugal)à1^st to sail around Cape of Good Hope

            -Vasco da Gama (1497) (Portugal)àSailed around Africa to India

            -Pedro Cabral (Portugal)àSaw and claimed Brazil before going to India

            -Portugal established trading camps in India (made lots of $$$$)

            -Christopher Columbus (1492)

                        -Sailed west to reach Asia

                        -Made 4 voyages

                        -Amerigo Vespucciàrealized land was not Asia but new land

            -Vasco Balboa (1513)

                        -Crossed the Isthmus of PanamaàFirst European to see Pacific Ocean

            -Ferdinand Magellan (1519)

                        -Wanted to go west around the world

                        -Lots of problems (mutiny, attacks)

                        -Died along the way

                        -Some of his sailors made it back to Europe 3 years later)

Other Explorers

            -English

                        -John Cabot (1497)

                                    -Sailed to Canada

                        -Sir Francis Drake

                                    -Sailed along western coast of the Americas

                                    -Went west to get back home

                        -Henry Hudson (1607)

                                    -Wanted to find Northwest Passage

                                    -Explored Canada’s interior

            -French

                        -Jacque Cartier (1534)

                                    -Sailed into St. Lawrence River (Canada)

                                                -Claimed land for France

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