The Age of Exploration

8th Grade

American History

1. The Age of Exploration

Was a period of time from the 1400’s to the 1600’s when Europeans began exploring the world by sea.

The purpose of this exploration was to search for trading partners, new goods, new trade routes, and some were just looking for adventure.

The Age of Exploration significantly helped in the advancement of knowledge about our world.

2. Trade Routes

The goal of many Europeans was to get to Asia so they could trade.

The main commodities the Europeans were after was silk and spice.

3. First Journeys

Portugal under Henry the Navigator was the first country to begin these journeys to Asia.

Vasco Da Gama was the first explorer to successfully navigate around Africa to Asia in 1497.

4. Cause/Effect

The European exploration of the America's was caused be several factors and has created several effects.

Cause: Desire for gold and land Cause: Search for routes to Asia Cause: Desire to spread Christianity

Effect: Native American civilizations disrupted Effect: New knowledge of geography Effect: Native Americans die from European

diseases

5. Columbus

Christopher Columbus is the man who is credited with discovering the Americas in 1492.

His ideas were different from the Portuguese because he proposed that if you sail west in the Atlantic Ocean you would eventually land in Asia.

Columbus was an Italian man, but he gained support for his journey from Spain.

6. King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella The Spanish monarchs were jealous of the

exploration success of their neighbors the Portuguese.

Columbus had been traveling around Europe to try and gain support for his journey, but he was not successful.

Finally, the Spanish monarchs decided they would sponsor Columbus out of competition, desire for wealth, and desire to spread Christianity.

7. The Journey

The journey from Europe to the Americas took about 2 ½ months.

Columbus and 90 sailors were aboard three ships.

After about one month the crew started to become restless and concerned about their future. They thought they were going to die.

8. The Logs

On a daily basis Columbus would fill in logs to mark how far they had gone.

He began to alter this information so his sailors would not rebel against him.

He said “having trouble with the crew…I am told that if I persist in going onward, the best course of action will be to throw me in to the sea.”

9. Land

Finally, on October 12, 1492 Columbus and his men landed in the Bahamas.

Columbus named the Island they landed on San Salvador.

Columbus believed that he had landed in an area named the East Indies in Asia. He called the people Indians, and those islands are commonly referred to as the West Indies today.

10. Explorers

Amerigo Vespucci – he is the man that the America’s are named after. He traveled around South America mapping the continent. He is the one that realized Columbus had not found Asia.

Ferdinand Magellan – A Portuguese captain. He is credited with being the first person to circumnavigate the world. He sailed west from Europe, down South America and in to the Pacific Ocean.