Age of Exploration: Pirates and Treasure

Age of Exploration

• The Age of Exploration was a time in which Europe took to the seas looking for wealth and new lands.
• It was characterized by people seeking answers about the worlds beyond the 'Green Seas of Darkness'.

Mapping the New World

• Prince Henry of Portugal, also known as 'Henry the Navigator', began the first school of oceanic navigation and sponsored many expeditions.
• He helped create maps used by later explorers and sparked the spirit of exploration in Europe.
• Amerigo Vespucci, an Italian navigator and cartographer, reported that the West Indies were not part of Asia but a new continent.
• Vespucci was appointed chief navigator of Spain and developed a method of determining longitude, advancing European cartography.
• Cartographers Ringmann and Waldseemuller produced a new map calling the New World 'America', after Amerigo Vespucci.

Seaborne Commerce

• Spain and Portugal dominated the early stages of exploration and trade.
• Trading vessels raced across the seas, using new and improved maps.
• Spain's wealth came from gold and silver mined from the Americas, as well as agricultural products.
• Spain also grew its Oriental and Indian trading franchise.

Early Privateers

• French privateers, government-sanctioned pirates, boarded and raided Spanish ships carrying wealth and treasure.
• The Dutch also got involved with their own privateers, known as Sea Beggars.
• The English Sea Dogs, including John Hawkins and Sir Francis Drake, were skilled pirates who raided Spanish ships.

English Sea Dogs

• John Hawkins was the de facto leader of the English Sea Dogs, raiding Spanish ships and dabbling in the African slave trade.
• Sir Francis Drake, a British explorer, slave trader, and privateer, served England well and earned a knighthood.
• Drake was dubbed El Draque, 'the Dragon', by the Spanish, and King Phillip II of Spain put a bounty on his head.
• Drake was an excellent navigator and became the second recorded European to circumnavigate the globe.
• Sir Martin Frobisher, an explorer, navigator, and British Naval officer, also added privateering to his resume, looting French ships for Mother England.
• Sir Walter Raleigh, a favorite of Queen Elizabeth, was a wealthy man, explorer, and privateer, who established the first English colony in America on Roanoke Island.

Explore the golden age of piracy and treasures during the Age of Exploration. Learn about the historical context and the infamous sea scoundrels who ruled the oceans.