Age of Discovery

Mr. Stikes

• SSWH10 The student will analyze the impact of the age of discovery and expansion into the Americas, Africa, and Asia.

• a. Explain the roles of explorers and conquistadors; include Zheng He, Vasco da Gama, Christopher Columbus, Ferdinand Magellan, James Cook, and Samuel de Champlain.

• b. Define the Columbian Exchange and its global economic and cultural impact.

• c. Explain the role of improved technology in European exploration; include the astrolabe.

Why?

• Reasons for the Age of Discovery:– Economic

• Monopolies– Muslim, Italian

• Goods from Asia:– Pepper– Cinnamon– Silk

Why?

• “Gold, Glory, God”

– Gold: make money

– Glory: become famous

– God: spread Christianity

Famous Explorers

• Zheng He• Prince Henry the

Navigator• Bartholomew Dias• Christopher

Columbus• John Cabot

• Vasco da Gama• Pedro Cabral• Ferdinand Magellan• Henry Hudson• James Cook• Samuel de Champlain• Jacques Cartier

Zheng He (1371-1435)

• Chinese

• Eunuch who served the Ming Dynasty in China

• Muslim?

Zheng He (1371-1435)

• Completed 7 voyages throughout the Indian Ocean

– #1 – 1405-7 – 317 ships with over 27,000 men, visited Java in Indonesia, Sri Lanka and India

– #2 – 1407-9 – similar route/fleet

– #3 – 1409-11 – more concentrated in SE Asia

Zheng He (1371-1435)

• Completed 7 voyages throughout the Indian Ocean

– #4 – 1413-15 – reached as far as E. Africa

– #5 – 1416-19 – returned to Arabia, E. Africa

– #6 – 1421-22 – returned to Arabia, E. Africa

– #7 – 1430-33 – Records destroyed

Zheng He (1371-1435)

Zheng He (1371-1435)

• Purpose:– Tribute– Trade

• Brought back riches, including wild animals (giraffes, zebras, ostriches)

• After 1433, China turned inward– Why?

Prince Henry the Navigator (1394-1460)

• Portuguese, son of King Dom João I and Phillipa of Lancaster

• Commissioned sea voyages to Africa and India

• Claimed four major island groups in Atlantic

Bartholomew Dias (c.1450-1500)• Portuguese

• Voyage (1487-1488)– Passed Cape of

Good Hope – First European?

• Died on voyage to Brazil w/ Cabral

Cape of Good Hope

Christopher Columbus (c.1451-1506)• Italian (from Genoa)

• Sailed for Spain

• First documented voyage across Atlantic since the Vikings (≈ A.D. 1000)

• Believed in sea route to Asia

• Incorrect beliefs:– Asia stretched farther east (about 30° more)– Japan was 1,500 miles of Asian coast– Size of earth

• Believed the Canary Islands were only 2,500 miles from Japan

Christopher Columbus (c.1451-1506)

• Gained support of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile– Why?

• Portuguese control of sea route around Africa• Small gamble = big reward

• Promised titles and land if he could find the way

Christopher Columbus (c.1451-1506)

• First Voyage (1492-1493)– Three ships: Niña, Pinta, Santa Maria

– Landfall in the Bahamas, October 12, 1492• “San Salvador”

– Observed natives they called “Indians”

– Visited the Bahamas, Cuba and Hispaniola

Christopher Columbus (c.1451-1506)

• Second Voyage (1493-1496)– Founded colony on Hispaniola, explored

southern Cuba

– Isabella ordered the “Indians” converted to Christianity

• Third Voyage (1498-1499)– Explored Trinidad & Venezuela, arrested due

to chaos in Hispaniola

Christopher Columbus (c.1451-1506)

• Third Voyage (1502-1504)– Explored Central America

– Marooned on Jamaica, rescued and returned to Spain

Christopher Columbus (c.1451-1506)

Christopher Columbus (c.1451-1506)

Columbus Meeting the Native Americans

Treaty of Tordesillas (1494)

• Solves dispute between Portugal and (Castilian) Spain– Splits world into Portuguese and Spanish

spheres of influence

• Mediation by Pope Alexander VI– Original line: set by Inter Caetera

(Papal bull of 4 May 1493)

• Later modified by Treaty of Zaragoza (1529)

John Cabot (c.1450-1499)• Italian (Venice), sailed for England

• 1497 – “discovered” North America– Newfoundland (probably)

Vasco da Gama (c.1469-1524)

• Portuguese

• First European to sail to India around Africa (1497-1499)– Visited Calicut, principal spice trading port in

India– Trip as a failure?

Pedro Cabral (c.1467-1520)• Portuguese

• Discovered Brazil (1500)– Accident

Ferdinand Magellan (c.1480-1521)

• Portuguese

• Sailed for Spain

• First European to sail around southern tip of South America (1520)

• First to circumnavigate the world (1519-1522)

Ferdinand Magellan (c.1480-1521)

• 5 ships left Spain (20 September 1519)

• Killed in fighting with natives in the Philippines (1521)

• Voyage continued with only one ship (the Victoria) on under Juan Sebastian Elcano, reaching Spain on 6 September 1522

Ferdinand Magellan (c.1480-1521)

Jacques Cartier (1491-1557)• French

• Discovered St. Lawrence River (1534)

Sain

t Law

renc

e R

iver

Samuel de Champlain (c.1570-1635)

• French explorer

• Searched for Northwest Passage

• Founded Quebec (1608)

• Discovered that European methods weren’t useful in America– Solution: Befriend native peoples

Henry Hudson (1611)

• Sailed for both England and the Netherlands

• Claimed land for the Dutch East India Company– Including New Netherlands (New Amsterdam,

present day New York)

James Cook (1728-1779)

• British explorer of the Pacific Ocean, “commonly regarded as the greatest sea explorer of all time”*

* Oxford Companion to World Exploration, “Cook, James”

• 3 Major Voyages to Pacific:– #1 – Endeavor – 1768-1771 –

circumnavigated New Zealand, visited Australia

– #2 – Resolution – 1772-1775 – charted southern Pacific

– #3 – Resolution – 1776-1780 – search for NW Passage, discovered Hawaii, killed in Hawaii (1779)

James Cook (1728-1779)

DID YOU KNOW: James Cook was the first European to describe a kangaroo.

James Cook (1728-1779)

Green = First voyage, Red = Second Voyage, Blue = Third Voyage, Blue Dotted = 3rd Voyage After Death of Cook. Map courtesy of wikimedia.org.

• Demonstrated that there could be no Northwest Passage or inhabitable Southern Continent

• Shows the merging of science with sea exploration

James Cook (1728-1779)

Technology and Exploration

• Astrolabe:– Measures angle (altitude) of sun and starts– Used to determine latitude

• Compass:– Magnetic– Determines direction

Perfected by the Arabs

Perfected by the Chinese

Technology and Exploration

• Hourglass:– Determines time

• Maps:– Drawn by Cartographers– Much improved– Ptolemaic grid system

Technology and Exploration

• Sails:– Used Arab triangular sails– Multiple masts– Stern based rudder

Technology and Exploration

• Caravel– Incorporated

new tech.– Size:

≈ 65 feet ≈ 130 tons

Columbian Exchange

• The exchange of goods and people from Europe, Asia and Africa (the “Old World”) to the Americas (the “New World”)

Global Impact of Columbian Exchange

• Movement of peoples and cultures

• Exchanges of ideas

• European room for growth

Cultural Impact of Columbian Exchange

• Shelter for poor & outcasts

• Impact on natives– Positives– Negatives

• “Melting Pot”