Early Explorations Chapter 17:i

Psalter Map circa 1250 Medieval maps depicted the world as a disc with Jerusalem at the centre.

Ptolemy’s map of the world

Portolan chart

“ When old Cape Nun heaves into sight Turn back, my lad, or else - good night!” - popular Portuguese verse

Portuguese captain Gil Eanes’ return from a voyage to the South Atlantic in 1434 set the stage for later voyages of discovery.

Advances in technology allowed European cartographers to produce more accurate maps.

Ocean charts began to include lines of latitude.

Sailors could calculate their latitude using an astrolabe.

Sailors could determine their location at sea out of the site of land by using a magnetic compass.

The Portuguese-designed, ocean- going caravel could carry more sail and had more space for cargo and supplies than earlier ships.

Italian city- states such as Venice and Genoa lacked the resources for such large undertakings.

Ferdinand V It was the rulers of emerging nations who sponsored the great seafaring expeditions of the 1400 and 1500s. Isabella I

Europeans co-opted already-existing trade routes in the Indian Ocean established by Arab merchants.

Prince Henry the Navigator

Prince Henry’s Charter

Captain Dias commanded the first Portuguese expedition to sail around Africa into the Indian Ocean.

He passed the Cape of Storms on his way.

Route followed by Diaz

The Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama led the first European expedition to reach India by sea around the southern tip of Africa.

Da Gama’s fleet of four ships made the voyage across the Indian Ocean to Calicut in India.

Da Gama’s voyage brought Portugal closer to acquiring a trading empire in Asia.

Da Gama was serving as the viceroy of India when he died in Cochin in 1524.

The Genoese sea captain Christopher Columbus conceived of a plan to reach the Orient by sailing west across the Atlantic Ocean.

Queen Isabella I of Spain agreed to sponsor Columbus’ voyage.

Columbus set sail with three ships from Palos, Spain, on August 3rd, 1492.

Historians are unsure of where Columbus first made landfall.

Instead of finding a shortcut to Asia, Columbus discovered a whole new world.

Columbus would eventually make four voyages to the New World.

In order to keep peace, the pope negotiated the Treaty of Tordesillas, dividing all newly- discovered lands between Spain and Portugal.

Pedro Cabral claimed Brazil for Portugal when a storm blew his expedition to India off course.

The Italian navigator Amerigo Vespucci charted the coastline of Central America and described the continent as the “Mundus Novus,” or “New World.”

The German cartographer Martin Waldseemuller was first to label the newly-discovered lands America.

Conquistadore Don Juan Ponce de Leon II, the conqueror of Puerto Rico, sailed with Columbus on his second voyage to the New World.

In his efforts to find the fountain of youth, Juan Ponce de Leon II explored much of what is present- day Florida.

The Spanish explorer Vasco de Balboa is considered to be the first of the conquistadores (leaders of the Spanish conquest) in the Western Hemisphere.

Balboa is credited with discovering the Pacific Ocean after crossing the Isthmus of Panama.

Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan, sailing under the Spanish flag, attempted to find a western sea route to Asia.

Magellan’s efforts ultimately led to the first circumnavigation of the earth.

Magellan discovered the straits at the southern tip of South America which now bear his name along the way.

[Need pix of Magellan in Philippines.]

In 1580, Sir Francis Drake returned to England after raiding Spanish settlements on the west coast of South America.

Drake was the first Englishman to circumnavigate the earth.

Italian sea captain John Cabot made two voyages to the New World for England.

Believing he had reached the coast of northeast Asia, Cabot claimed the land for King Henry VII of England.

The English sea captain Sir Martin Frobisher explored the area around Baffin Island. Frobisher Bay

Frobisher was knighted for his participation in defeating the Spanish Armada in 1588.

Italian navigator Giovanni de Verrazano explored the coast of North America from Newfoundland to present-day Delaware under the French flag.

The French explorer Jacques Cartier discovered the St. Lawrence River in an attempt to find a passage to the Pacific ocean.

Much of the French claim to Canada was based on Cartier's explorations.

The Englishman Henry Hudson devoted himself to finding a sea passage through the Americas to the Orient.

It was on his third voyage in 1609 sailing for the Dutch in the Halve Moon that Henry Hudson discovered the Hudson River in present-day New York state.

Henry Hudson ultimately made four voyages of discovery.