Age of Exploration (Some background knowledge before we dive in!)

When? Mid 1400s- late 1600s

Where? Make three observations on your note sheet that will help you to remember where.

Where? Make three observations on your note sheet that will help you to remember where.

Why? To locate spices to use in curing meat To claim new lands for their kingdoms To gain riches and wealth through the acquisition of natural resources To expand their knowledge To share Christianity with the Eastern world

Essential Terms

Fall of Constantinople - Ottoman Empire close land routes to Asia with the conquering of the Byzantine Empire capital, Constantinople, which forced Europeans to seek other routes of trade to the East

Prince Henry the Navigator - 1394 – 1460 A Portuguese prince and explorer. Though he did not personally participate in exploring, he sent many explorers from Portugal to the western coast of Africa

Christopher Columbus - 1446 – 1506 An Italian navigator sent to the New World through financing from King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain

Vasco da Gama - 1460 – 1524 A Portuguese explorer that discovered the ocean route from Europe to India and the East

Ferdinand Magellan - 1480 – 1521 A Portuguese/Spanish explorer that led the expedition that would complete the first circumnavigation of the Earth. While he was killed prior to completing the expedition, his crew and ship made the circumnavigation

Sir Francis Drake - 1450 – 1596 An English privateer commissioned by Queen Elizabeth I to attack Spanish ports and shipping. He was also appointed by the queen to lead an expedition to circumnavigate the Earth, which he completed in 1580

Giovanni da Verrazano - 1485 – 1528 An Italian explorer sent by the King Francis I of France to discover a northwest passage through North America to Asia

Columbian Exchange - A global transfer of plants, animals, and diseases that occurred during the exploration and colonization of the Americas

Mercantilism - A theory in Economics that prescribed a nation to export more than it imported and to accumulate gold bullion to make up the trade deficit. This theory helped to spur the beginnings of colonization as it was believed that a nation’s colonies could provide raw materials to the mother country and the mother country could sell finished good back to the colonies

Hold onto these notes! There will be an assessment on Friday, December 7!

Questions to Ponder How does trade make or break a nation? What are the consequences of global trade? We will come back to these questions as we discuss the Age of Exploration, so write them down!

Atlantic Slave Trade - Also known as the Transatlantic Slave Trade; The trading of African people to the colonies of the New World that occurred in and around the Atlantic Ocean.

Capitalism - An economic system in which investment in and ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange of wealth is made and maintained chiefly by private individuals or corporations, especially as contrasted to cooperatively or state-owned means of wealth

Middle Passage - The voyage that brought captured Africans to the West Indies, and later to the Americas, to be sold as slaves; Called thus because it was considered the middle leg of the triangular trade

Triangular Trade Route - The transatlantic trading network along which slaves and other goods were carried between Africa, Great Britain, Europe, the West Indies, and the colonies in the Americas

Silk Road - A network of trade routes across the Asian continent, connected East, South, and Western Asia with the Mediterranean world, as well as North and Northeast Africa, and Europe. It began in central China & India and stopped somewhere near the Mediterranean Sea.

Pre-viewing Questions: Copy these questions on your own paper. How many people do you think were forced into slavery during the height of the slave trade (1500-1860s)? What country do you think was responsible for the largest number of slaves transported across the Atlantic? How many slaves were transported on the average voyage across the ocean?

Based on Map 1, what observations can you make about the origins and destinations of the majority of slaves? Where did nearly 4,000,000 slaves come from?

Based on Map 2, what impact did the Silk Road have on the slave trade?

Based on Map 4, what effect would you say that the wind and ocean currents had on the slave trade?

Based on Map 5, would you say there was any one region that was UNaffected by the slave trade?

Based on this image, what inference can you make about the conditions on slave ships?