The Age of Exploration

What was the Age of Exploration?

• A time period when Europeans began to explore the rest of the world.

• Improvements in mapmaking, shipbuilding, rigging, and navigation made this possible.

• Blue water sailing, not just coastal boats.

• Policy of mercantilism drives the exploration.

What was mercantilism?

• Policy that said there was a limited amount of money in the world.

• Each country needs to grab what they can before it is gone.

• Export more than you import…more money in your pocket.

• Colonies and markets were needed to keep everything in the system.

The Explorers: Portugal

Bartolomeu Dias

• Sailed around Cape of Good Hope at southern tip of Africa.

• Found route to Indian Ocean

• Trade can go from Europe to Asia by sea.

Vasco da Gama

• Landed in India in 1498.

• Important trade route from Europe to India and East Indies.

Ferdinand Magellan

• His crew made first round-the-world voyage.

• Proved for certain that the world was round.

• Magellan was killed in the Phillippines, did not make it home.

The Explorers: Spain

Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus • Believed a shorter

route to Asia could be found by sailing westward instead of around Africa.

• Found the Americas instead. Oops.

What was the Colombian Exchange?

• Massive exchange of plants, animals and diseases.

• These things moved between the New and Old Worlds.

• Started with Columbus. • To the Americas: cows, horses, wheat,

smallpox, plus much more.• To Europe: potatoes, tomatoes, tobacco,

corn, plus much more.

The Slave Trade

• Europeans began to use slave labor in their colonies to grow crops, mine, etc.

• Native Americans used for a while, but Africans began to be brought to the Americas.

• The slave trade then became the main focus of Europe’s relations with Africa.

What was the Triangular Trade?

• System of trade between Europe, Africa, and the Americas.

• Stage 1: Raw materials to Europe (tobacco, rum, sugar)

• Stage 2: Manufactured goods to Africa (guns, cloth, rum)

• Stage 3: Slaves to the Americas to make raw materials.

The Triangular Trade