1. WHY? Curiosity Wealth Fame National Pride Religion Foreign Goods Faster, cheaper trade routes

2. Bartolomeu Dias 1488 Sent by King James of Portugal to look for a trade route to India. Was the first known European to sail around the southern tip o Africa Named it the Cape of Good Hope ( he hoped he had found the way to Asia)

3. Vasco de Gamma 1498 Also from Portugal Followed Dias’s route and continued north along the eastern coast of Africa Sailed across the Indian Ocean to India. He had found an all water route from Europe to Asia. WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?

4. Christopher Columbus 1492 He was from Italy but couldn’t convince the rulers of Italy or Portugal to fund an expedition to find a western route to Asia ( they thought he was nuts ). Spain agreed to fund Columbus’s expedition ( why do you think they did that? ) Columbus had three ships: Nina, Pinta, Santa Maria

5. Did he reach Asia? No. Columbus landed on an island in the Caribbean Sea, but he believed he had reached India so he called the people he met ______. Columbus called the island San Salvador and got some of the people from there to act as guides to take him around to some of the other nearby islands

6. On an island that Columbus called Espanola (we call it Hispanola), Columbus and some of his men saw some people with gold jewelry on. WOOHOOO!! They assumed that there were deposits of gold nearby somewhere and took that news back to Spain. Columbus made three more voyages to the Americas and he died still believing he had reached Asia.

7. Amerigo Vespucci 1501 (Italy) He realized that the land Columbus saw was NOT really Asia and set out to find the water route to actual Asia (yes, still, again). A German cartographer (mapmaker) was so impressed with Vespucci’s description of the new continents that he named them after him….hence “America”.

8. Vasco Nunez de Balboa Balboa was from Spain and led an expedition in 1513 across the jungles of Panama. Again, he was trying to find a water route to Asia (uh-huh, still). Of course, there wasn’t one across Panama.

9. Ferdinand Magellan In 1519 Magellan set out from Portugal to find the water route to Asia. He decided to sail west around the tip of South America (very dangerous even now). Although Magellan died on the trip, Magellan’s crew became the first people to circumnavigate the globe (sail around the world)

11. Terms You Need To Know Columbian Exchange: the movement of living things between the eastern and western hemispheres AFTER Columbus contacted North America.

12. Mercantilism: this is an economic policy where colonies are established purely for the enrichment of the mother country Colonies help the mother country by providing raw materials, gold, and silver Colonies must buy finished products from the mother country which also completely controls trade with the colonies. (colonies cannot trade freely around the world)