1. Identify each explorer’s sponsoring country and claim to fame
Balboa
Cabot
Cartier
Columbus
Da Gama
Hudson
Magellan
Vespucci

2. Motivations for Exploration
What did all of the explorers have in common during this time period? What were they hoping to achieve?
What parts of the world are we talking about when we discuss the “New World” and the “Old World?”
Italy played a central role in the dawn of exploration but very few Italian voyages to the New World were funded. Explain.

3. Analyzing Pros and Cons
Identify three good effects (pros) of discovering the “New World:”
(1)
(2)
(3)
Identify three bad effects (cons) of discovering the “New World:”

4. What Spawned Exploration?
How did the Crusades of the Middle Ages lead to the age of discovery and exploration?
How did the development of navigational technology lead to the Age of Discovery and Exploration?
How did the decline of feudalism give rise to exploration?
How did the values of the Renaissance encourage exploration?

5. From Exploration to Conquest
How did technology affect the meeting of the Native Americans and Spanish Conquistadors?
Sometimes Native Americans fought among one another. How did these tribal divisions serve to help the European Conquistadors?
How did disease affect this meeting?

6. The Columbian Exchange
Describe what took place during the Columbian exchange
Identify five goods that the New World introduced to the Old World and five goods that the Old World brought to the New World.
Why was this exchange of goods and resources so important for both halves of the world?
Define capitalism.
How did the exploration of the New World lead to capitalism?

7. The Slave Trade What is the “Triangle Trade?”
Which route in the Triangle Trade is the “Middle Passage?” Where does it begin and end?
What is carried on the Middle Passage?
What is exchanged on the other two routes of the “triangle trade” – be sure to identify the origins and destinations.

8. Scientific Revolution
Population shift from Europe to America
Columbus arrives at West Indies
Africans enslaved
Europeans search for a sea route to Asia
Exchange of culture/ideas
Europeans discover new plant and animal life
Native Americans die in huge numbers from disease
The list to the left contains 8 causes and effects of the Columbian Exchange and Commercial Revolution of the 15th and 16th centuries.
(a) Identify each as a cause or effect. (b) Then, explain the impact of this factor (i.e. for a cause, explain how the factor helped bring about the Commercial Revolution; for an effect, explain how the factor came to be as a result of the Commercial Revolution.