Age of Exploration: The Era of Pirates and Treasure Hunts

Age of Exploration

• The Age of Exploration was a time when Europe sought wealth and new lands by taking to the seas.
• It was a time of great curiosity, with people wanting to explore beyond the "Green Seas of Darkness".

Mapping the New World

• Prince Henry of Portugal, known as "Henry the Navigator", sponsored expeditions into the unknown and established a school of oceanic navigation.
• He created maps used by later explorers, sparking 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.
• King Ferdinand promoted Vespucci to chief navigator of Spain, where he developed a method of determining longitude and advanced European cartography.
• Cartographers Ringmann and Waldseemuller produced a map calling the New World "America", after Amerigo Vespucci.

Seaborne Commerce

• Spain and Portugal were the early leaders in exploration, with Spain's wealth coming from gold and silver mined from the Americas.
• They also traded in agricultural products, which helped line their pockets.
• Spain grew its Oriental and Indian trading franchise, while the rest of Europe initially stayed out of their way.

Early Privateers

• The French committed the first acts of piracy against the Spanish in the waters off the Azores.
• 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, led by John Hawkins and later Sir Francis Drake, were arguably the most skilled pirates of the Age.

English Sea Dogs

• John Hawkins emerged as the 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, took over as England's premier privateer and served his country well.
• Drake was dubbed "El Draque" by the Spanish and had a bounty on his head, but he was a hero to his fellow Englishmen.
• Drake was an excellent navigator and became the second recorded European to circumnavigate the globe.
• Other notable English privateers include Sir Martin Frobisher, who explored and navigated, and Sir Walter Raleigh, who established the first English colony in America on Roanoke Island.