1. The Age of Exploration
standard *

2. Greed for land, wealth and power (law of primogeniture)
The Three G’s:
Greed for land, wealth and power (law of primogeniture)
Gold for the country’s treasury (the Reconquista and other wars were expensive)
Reasons:
God (converts to make the Roman Catholic Church stronger) *

3. Lack of Geographical Knowledge
Problems: *

4. Natural Obstacles
Problems: *

5. Lack of food
“The expedition had left Sanlúcar with 420 casks of wine. All were drained. One by one the other staples vanished — cheese, dried fish, salt pork, beans, peas, anchovies, cereals, onions, raisins, and lentils — until they were left with kegs of brackish, foul-smelling water and biscuits which, having first crumbled into a gray powder, were now slimy with rat droppings and alive with maggots. These, mixed with sawdust, formed a vile muck men could get down only by holding their noses. Rats, which could be roasted, were so prized that they sold for half a ducat each. The capitán- general had warned them that they might have to eat leather, and it came to that. Desperate to appease their stomach pangs, “the famine-stricken fellows,” wrote Antonio Pigafetta, who was one of them, “were forced to gnaw the hides with which the mainyard was covered to prevent chafing.” Because these leather strips had been hardened by “the sun and rain and wind,” he explained, “we were obliged to soften them by putting them overboard four or five days, after which we cooked them on embers and ate them thus.”
-William Manchester, A World Lit Only By Fire
Problems: *

6. Disease: Scurvy! Problems: HOW IT IS CAUGHT: • Lack of vitamin C
SYMPTOMS:
Spongy, bleeding gums
Loose teeth
Bleeding from mucous membranes
Sunken eyes
Corkscrewed hairs on arms and legs
Problems:
SCURVY
CAUSE
Insufficient intake of vitamin C.
SYMPTOMS
• Dark purplish spots on skin, especially legs.
• Spongy gums, often leading to tooth loss.
• Bleeding from all mucous membranes.
• Pallor
• Bleeding gums.
• Sunken eyes
• Opening of healed scars and separation of knitted bone fractures.
• Nosebleeds
• Corkscrewed hairs on arms and legs
WORST CASE SCENARIO
Untreated scurvy is invariably fatal. Since all that is required for a full recovery is the resumption of normal vitamin C intake, death from scurvy is rare in modern times.
PREVENTION/TREATMENT
Scurvy can be prevented by a diet that includes certain citrus fruits such as oranges or lemons. Other sources rich in vitamin C are fruits such as blackcurrants, guava, kiwi, papaya, tomatoes and strawberries. It can also be found in some vegetables, such as carrots, bell peppers, broccoli, potatoes, cabbage, spinach and paprika, as well as some pickled vegetables. The scientific name of vitamin C, ascorbic acid, is derived from the Latin name of scurvy, scorbutus.
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
Scurvy was at one time common among sailors, pirates and others aboard ships at sea longer than perishable fruits and vegetables could be stored, and by soldiers similarly separated from these foods for extended periods. It was described by Hippocrates. Herbal cures for scurvy have been known in many native cultures since prehistory. In 1536, the French explorer Jacques Cartier, exploring the St. Lawrence River, used the local natives' knowledge to save his men who were dying of scurvy. He boiled the needles of the arbor vitae tree to make a tea that was later shown to contain 50 mg of vitamin C per 100 grams. Such treatments were not available aboard ship, where the disease was most common. It was a Scottish surgeon in the British Royal Navy, James Lind, who first proved it could be treated with citrus fruit in experiments he described in his 1753 book, A Treatise of the Scurvy.
CALIFORNIA STANDARDS LINKS
5.2, 7.11
WORST CASE SCENARIO:
Death (100%)
TREATMENT:
Take vitamin C *

7. *

8. Better Maps, Atlases and Rutters
Things that helped exploration: *

9. Things that helped exploration:
better cannon
astrolabe
Things that helped exploration:
rudder
lateen sail *

10. square-rigged sail
WIND *

11. Lateen (trianglular) sail
WIND
WIND
WIND
WIND
WIND *

12. World divided by Pope in 1494:
Spain vs. Portugal
Spain got the west
Portugal got the east
The Treaty of Tordesillas, signed at Tordesillas, June 7, 1494, divided the newly discovered lands outside Europe into an exclusive duopoly between the Spanish and the Portuguese along a north-south meridian 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde islands (off the west coast of Africa). This was about halfway between the Cape Verde Islands (already Portuguese) and the islands discovered by Christopher Columbus on his first voyage (claimed for Spain), named in the treaty as Cipangu and Antilia (Cuba and Hispaniola). The lands to the east would belong to Portugal and the lands to the west to Spain. The treaty was ratified by Spain (at the time, the Crowns of Castile and Aragon), July 2, 1494 and by Portugal, September 5, The other side of the world would be divided a few decades later by the Treaty of Saragossa or Treaty of Zaragoza, signed on April 22, 1529, which specified the anti-meridian to the line of demarcation specified in the Treaty of Tordesillas. Originals of both treaties are kept at the Archivo General de Indias in Spain and at the Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo in Portugal.
World divided by Pope in 1494:
Treaty of Tordesillas *

13. Portugal’s empire:
lots of spices! *

14. Spices = wealth! Cloves used for: Black pepper:
Jam
Vinegar
Breath freshener
Cures head colds
Strengthens vision
Clears intestines
Clears bladder
Helps with the ladies
Black pepper:
2 g silver/kilo in India
30 g silver/kilo in France *

15. Spain’s empire:
lots of gold and silver! *

16. Gold = wealth!

17. The Explorers: A Play in One Act
I’M WEARING
PUFFY SHORTS!
I JUST SHAVED
MY LEGS!
LOOK AT MY
FANCY FEATHER.
WHO FARTED?
The Explorers: A Play in One Act *

18. fin *

19. SUMMARY
Write a paragraph that would clearly explain the Age of Exploration to a fourth-grader. Include reasons, problems, things that helped, and the Spanish/Portuguese rivalry. *

20. The Age of Exploration
Holt, chapter 16, section 1
Reasons Greed, gold and God
Problems Lack of geographical knowledge
Natural obstacles
Lack of food
Disease: scurvy
Things that helped exploration Better maps, atlases, rutters
Astrolabe
Better cannon
Rudder
Lateen sail
Spain vs. Portugal World divided by Pope in 1494
Spain gets west, Portugal gets east
Summary Write a paragraph that would clearly explain the Age of Exploration to a fourth-grader. Include causes, problems, things that helped, and the Spanish/Portuguese rivalry.