The World Before Exploration What was the world like before the Americas were “discovered”?

An old “world” map

A world map 1482

Four Areas of the World The Americas Europe Asia Africa

The Americas Some Native America groups had made powerful empires. An EMPIRE is a group of lands ruled by the nation that conquered them. The Incas and Aztecs had created two empires.

Incas and Aztecs Incan Empire: Located in what is now Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, and Argentina Aztec Empire: Located in what is now Mexico and Mexico City.

Europe European countries were being ruled by Monarchs. A MONARCH is a king or queen. Europeans were interested in new science and technology. They were in an age of art, learning, and science. This time period was called the Renaissance. Johannes Gutenberg invented a printing press so books could be printed.

Marco Polo One of the books printed was The Travels of Marco Polo. Marco Polo and his father and uncle had traveled to explore Asia. There they were impressed by everything they saw including Chinese inventions of gun powder and a compass. They also saw paper money for the first time. Asia also had many interesting spices and silk. Many traders from Europe traveled to Asia to get these goods.

Asia Some Asian countries began exploring by sea. They sailed the ocean in ships called “junks.” Junks were Chinese wooden boats with four- sided sails. After a while, however, Chinese rulers banned exploration and limited trading. However, other Asian countries like India, Korea, and Japan continued to build trading centers. One of these important trading centers was in Vijayunagar in India.

Africa For many centuries, African countries traded with one another. African trading centers grew over time. Eventually large and powerful trading centers began to form. The African leaders at this time encouraged trade with Europe and Asian traders.