1. European Explorations 1400-1600 - intro
2nd YR

3. Europe in 1400s
Europeans didn’t know about America, Australia, most of Africa
Huge Trade between Europe and the East (Spice Islands, India and China)
People travelled by land, not by sea
Europeans (Christians) travelled across Muslim lands to get the spices

4. Why people were afraid to travel at sea
Afraid of sea monsters
Thought the world was flat – would fall off edge
Afraid of going down towards the equator – water would boil
No navigation instruments to tell them where they were in the ocean so they were afraid to lose sight of land

5. Why did the age of exploration begin?
Muslims charged high taxes to Christians travelling through
Muslims and Christians often at war – dangerous to travel across their land
Kings wanted to find gold and jewels to be richer
Wanted to conquer other lands and build on empire

6. Why the age of exploration began (2)
Legend of Prester John – Christian King
They wanted to spread Christianity
Influence of the renaissance ideas – to discover more about the world
To control the spice trade

7. Spices Most important reason for starting Age of Exploration
Spices were vital to Europe for many reasons
Pepper, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg
Used for preserving food (no fridges to keep it fresh)
To make food taste nicer
Used in medicines – nutmeg, cloves
Pepper from India
Nutmeg from Spice Islands
Cinnamon from China

8. What made sea exploration possible?
Better ships
New navigation instruments
Navigation means finding your way at sea

9. Better ships Called ‘caravels’ Had square sails (for speed)
Had triangular lateen sails (for turning or sailing against the wind)
Clinker built (stronger bottoms for storms)
Larger rudders – for steering
Held more cargo and crew

10. New instruments (1) Compass (for direction)
A log and line (measured the speed - knots)
Swinging the lead (to find out how deep the water was)
Astrolabe, or a quadrant (used to calculate latitude)

11. New instruments (2)
Latitude – how far you are from the equator (centre of the world)
Astrolabe – used stars to measure
Quadrant – used the sun
Portolan charts – small coastal maps