1. Age of Exploration: Focus- Commercial Innovations
Changing Ways of Life
Mercantilism

2. Discovery
1492 Christopher Columbus discovers the new land. His first trip is to Hispaniola and Cuba
Amerigo Vespucci was an Italian mapmaker who claimed Columbus had discovered a “New World” & America was named in his honor

3. Spain and Portugal Two biggest exploring nations
Began fighting over land in New World
Asked Pope to solve dispute
The Pope divided the New World in half with a line
Pope Alexander VI

4. Pope’s Solution: Draw a Line
West of line is Spain’s/East of line is Portugal’s

5. The Treaty of Tordesillas (1494)
Became obvious Spain got much more land
Moved the line west a little.

6. Slavery in the New World
Triangular trade
Set of trades between three points
The most famous was sugar/rum/slaves
Begins the transatlantic slave trade:
African chiefs sell members of other tribes for guns & alcohol
10 –24 million Africans were brought to America
1 in 5 did not survive the journey (Called the “Middle Passage” because it was the middle leg of the triangle)

7. Colombian Exchange
many products were carried to and from the New World like:
to the New World: horses, cows, wheat, rice, & oranges
from the New World: corn, potatoes, tobacco, cacao (chocolate)
Europeans carried unknown diseases to the native Americans which killed millions (including Small Pox)

8. ESSENTIAL QUESTION
What new economic institutions and innovations developed as a result of the expanding trade networks?
ANSWER: New economic systems emerge to control and expand trade

9. Commercial Revolution
Changing Ways of Life
Commercial Revolution
new business methods for investing money, speeding the flow of wealth, & reducing risks: result of Age of Exploration
rise of free enterprise (modern capitalism), economic system in which money is invested by individuals in business to make profits

10. More Commercial Revolution
people who wanted to invest in exploration combined resources in joint-stock companies, or organizations that sold stock & shared in profits & losses
rise of entrepreneurs, or individuals who combined money, ideas, raw materials, & labor to make goods & services
Note that Capitalism goes against some of the ideas of Mercantilism