Age of Exploration

• During the Renaissance, Europeans sought to profit from trade with Asian lands.
• New technologies made long ocean voyages possible.
• The voyages of Columbus and other explorers gave Europeans a new view of the world.

Key Terms

• Missionary: Members of a religious order who encourage people to convert.
• Circumnavigate: To sail completely around the world.
• Cartography: The science of making maps and globes.
• Caravel: A small, narrow vessel with two or three masts and triangular sails.

Motivations for Exploration

• Renaissance merchants grew wealthy trading goods imported from Asia.
• European nations sought a sea route to Asia, bypassing Italian trade routes in the Mediterranean.
• The spice trade was a new interest, with valuable spices like peppers, cloves, nutmeg, and cinnamon found in India, China, and the Spice Islands (Moluccas).
• Another motivation was to win converts for Christianity using Christian missionaries.

Portugal Leads the Way

• Portugal led the world in global exploration and was the first European nation to acquire an overseas empire.
• Portuguese expansion began with the invasion of North Africa and the conquest of Ceuta in 1415.
• Prince Henry the Navigator claimed the islands of Madeira and the Azores for Portugal around 1432.
• Prince Henry was the first European to make contact with Africa for trade in ivory, gold, and slaves.
• He sponsored explorers, training them in mapmaking, ship design, and navigation.
• Henry's mission in Africa was to drive out Muslims from North Africa and the Holy Land.
• The Portuguese hoped to convert Africans to Christianity and sought a faster sea route to Asia by sailing around Africa.

Dias Rounds the Cape

• In 1488, Bartolomeu Dias and his crew were the first Europeans to sail around the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of Africa.
• This discovery proved that it was possible to reach the Indian Ocean by sea.
• By 1500, most explorers sailed in light, fast ships that could hold provisions for long voyages.
• Ocean-going ships had cannons and a company of marines for self-defense against pirates.

Da Gama's Round-Trip Route

• In 1497, Captain Vasco da Gama sailed south from Portugal, rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and sailed on to India.
• Da Gama returned with a cargo of spices, equipped a new fleet of cargo ships, and sought more profit from the spice trade.
• The Portuguese seized key ports in the Indian Ocean and established a vast trading empire

Finding New Routes

• Portugal's sea captains headed southward in search of sea routes to Asia.
• Christopher Columbus sailed west because he knew that Earth was a sphere.

Columbus Sails West

• Columbus reasoned that by sailing west, he could reach the East Indies, a group of islands in Southeast Asia.
• Columbus underestimated the distance from Europe west to Asia.
• He did not know that North and South America barred the way.
• Columbus sailed in August 1492, landed on an island in the Bahamas, and believed he had reached lands off the coast of China.
• He made three return voyages, but found no traces of the Asian mainland.
• Columbus died believing these lands were the gateway to Asia.

Other Explorers Follow

• Inspired by Columbus and the Portuguese explorers, other nations sought new lands for trade.
• Dutch merchants reached Asia and were successful in the East Indies spice trade.
• Dutch trading colonies sprang up in Suriname, South Africa, and in the Dutch East Indies (present-day Indonesia).
• In 1500, Pedro Álvares Cabral landed on the east coast of South America (modern-day Brazil) and reached India.
• Amerigo Vespucci made four voyages of exploration and concluded that the lands Columbus called "the Indies" were part of a "New World."
• A German mapmaker named the newly encountered lands "America."

Magellan's Feat

• In 1519, Ferdinand Magellan launched the most ambitious voyage of discovery.
• He set out to cross the Atlantic to find a western route to Asia.
• Magellan sailed south along South America.
• Ferdinand sailed through a strait, or narrow channel, that led them to the Pacific Ocean.
• The continent was South America.

Magellan's Voyage

• Magellan continued north and sailed west across the Pacific Ocean.
• The journey used up all of the ships' food supplies.
• Many crew members died from a lack of certain nutrients.
• Magellan reached the Philippine Islands, claiming them for Spain.
• In 1521, he died in a battle with the islanders.
• The sole surviving ship of the fleet returned to Spain in September 1522.
• Only 18 crew members survived and they had circumnavigated.

New Tools for Exploration

• The voyages of exploration could not have been made without advances in sailing technology included improvements in mapmaking, navigation, and shipbuilding.
• During the Renaissance, mapmakers developed the science of making maps and globes, known as cartography.
• In 1569, Gerardus Mercator discovered how to project the curved surface of the globe onto a flat page.
• Mercator projections continue to be used today.

Advances in Navigation

• The magnetic compass was used to show direction.
• Navigators used the astrolabe, which determined the ship's north-south position based on measurements of the stars.

Understanding Winds

• Mariners learned that winds were divided into zones and that these zones changed with the seasons.
• They could map travel routes to catch the best winds and determine the best time of year to catch the winds for their voyages.

The Shipbuilding Revolution

• Until the Middle Ages, rowers worked to move ships.
• European craftworkers developed new oceangoing ships.
• They modified a ship called a caravel, a small, narrow vessel with two or three masts and triangular sails.
• It was fast and easier to maneuver in different wind and sea conditions.

Wonders of the World

• The voyages of discovery revealed wonders and created excitement about the natural world.
• Explorers discovered the vastness of the African continent and the existence of North America and South America.