1. Exploring Your Options

2. You are a merchant from Portugal in the late 15th century.
Since the Crusades, the demand for Asian goods
has risen steadily among Europeans.
There is a tremendous amount of
wealth available in India, but there are
TWO PROBLEMS you must face:

3. You
Are
Here
#2: The expanding Ottoman Empire has cut off the overland trade routes to Asia.
#1: Italian and Arab merchants control the trade routes along the Mediterranean Sea. $
On your paper, write at least 3 sentences explaining what you would do to get to the riches in India.

4. Pomponius, the ancient geographer that created this map, believed only about 40% of the Earth was inhabitable.
Circa 43 CE

5. Circa 636 CE This map shows only the top spherical half of Earth.
The “T” is the Mediterranean Sea.
Jerusalem was
usually represented as the center of the map.
Circa 636 CE

6. Circa 1040 CE This map was created by an Anglo-Saxon cartographer.
Great Britain
This map was created by an Anglo-Saxon cartographer.
Understandably, Great Britain is drawn with more detail.
Circa 1040 CE

7. 1154 CE This map was created by an Arab cartographer.
On your paper, discuss how this map looks compared to the others we have seen.
Why do you believe this map looks the way it does?
1154 CE

8. On your paper, define the word “cartographer.”

9. This map was made in Genoa, Italy.
This European-made map is unusual for the time due to the fact that it is based on the account of traveler Niccolo da Conti, rather than the usual source of the time, Marco Polo.
1457 CE

10. On your paper, discuss how this Portuguese-made map looks compared to the previous maps.
What is different?
Why?
1502 CE

11. Western Coast of Australia
This was the first map ever published in an atlas that shows any part of Australia.
Western Coast of Australia
1630 CE