1. Exploration

2. Focus Questions
1. What are some of the causes and effects of Exploration?
2. How did geography (where they are located?) affect Portugal, England, and Spain’s ability to become naval powers and empires?
3. How did the Renaissance help bring about the Age of Exploration?

3. Trade Between Europe and Asia
A. For centuries before the Renaissance, European traders traveled back and forth across the Mediterranean.
B. Merchants commonly journeyed from southern Europe to North Africa and the eastern Mediterranean.
C. Spices were one of the most important items traded at this time.

4. The Spice Trade A. Spices were in great demand by Europeans.
B. Before refrigeration, meat and fish spoiled quickly.
C. To help preserve food and to improve its flavor, people used spices such as pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves – from Asia.

5. The Spice Islands

6. The Italian Peninsula Controls Trade
A. For centuries, Italian merchants from Genoa and Venice controlled the spice trade.
B. They sailed to ports in the eastern Mediterranean (Holy Land), where they would purchase spices and other goods from traders who had traveled across Asia.
C. The Italian merchants would then bring these goods back to Europe.
D. Many countries wanted to enjoy the wealth that the Aristocrats in Italy were enjoying!

7. The Possibility of Great Wealth
A. Transporting goods across these great distances was costly.
B. Everyone along the way had to be paid and wanted to earn a profit.
C. By the time the spices reached Europe, they had to be sold at extremely high prices…….Also, the Muslims and Mongols (Huns) had control of the trade routes…..sometimes they did not play nicely………especially after the Crusades!
D. European merchants and rulers knew that if they could trade directly with people in Asia, they could make enormous profits.
E. Goal – find a new trade route to Asia!

8. Leaders In Exploration
The small country of Portugal is at the westernmost part of the European continent.
Portuguese sailors had navigated the waters of the Atlantic Ocean for centuries.
They traveled down the west coast of Africa and as far was as Madeira, the Azores, and the Canary Islands

9. Portugal Wins!
A. In the early 1400s, Portugal’s Prince Henry the Navigator sent explorers farther down the African coast – he believed a shortcut to Asia was around Africa.
B. Bartolomeu Dias rounded the southern tip of Africa in 1488.
C. Vasco da Gama and his crew reached the Indian coast less than one year later.
D. Now, the riches of Asia could be brought directly to Europe – after setting up trading posts along the way – Portugal ruled these waterways!

10. Christopher Columbus
Under the patronage of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain, Italian Christopher Columbus completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean.
Those voyages, and his efforts to establish permanent settlements on the island of Hispaniola, started the Spanish colonization of the “New World” and the quest for other questions to gain control of the “New World” and a trade route to Asia.

11. Europe Enters A New Age
A. Spain
Christopher Columbus
Ferdinand Magellan
Amerigo Vespucci
Francisco Pizzaro
B. England
John Cabot (Giovanni Caboto)
Sir Francis Drake
C. Netherlands
Henry Hudson
The Race is on for: wealth, glory, gold, land & power, and anything else Europeans can steal!
Wars, violence, and general competition broke out for control of the “New World.”

12. Explorers and the Countries Exploring

13. The Outcomes of Exploration
A. Clash of Cultures
Empires – countries such as Spain, Portugal, England, France became world powers because of the great wealth gleamed from the products and control of land.
Wars – these countries often fought one another over territory.
Imperialism – controlling another countries government and economy.
Colonialism – having colonies outside of your nation.
B. Religious Conversion
Protestant
Catholic
Society of Jesus - Jesuits
C. The Spread of Diseases
Europeans brought diseases to indigenous inhabitants (native people) that they were not immune to.
Tens – Hundreds of thousands of natives were killed.
D. Slavery
Indigenous people were enslaved to work in the gold & silver mines and on sugar plantations.
Africans were brought in to work after the indigenous peoples were killed.

14. The Triangle Trade!