The Age of Exploration Europe Asia and the Americas.
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Transcript of The Age of Exploration Europe Asia and the Americas.
Search for Spices
• Europeans desired luxury goods and spices from the East.– Spices were very
expensive– Food– Medicines– Perfumes
Trade routes
• Land routes between Europe and Asia were unreliable.– Threat from barbarians – Muslim traders cut off the trade routes to the
East.• Italian city states were the only ones granted trading
privileges with the Muslims
Search for new trade routes
• Hoping to bypass the Muslim and Italian traders who controlled the rich Asian spice trade, Europeans sought a new sea route to Asia.
Navigational tools
• Cartography –– Improved maps
• Astrolabe and Quadrant– Latitude
• Compass• Directions
Portugal in the 1400s
• Pioneers in exploration• Superior military power.• Began exploring the
African Coast.• They controlled the
spice trade between Europe and Asia for most of the 1500s.
Prince Henry the Navigator
• Portuguese Prince• Naval School at Sagres– Built ships– Created maps– Studied astronomy– Developed tools– Trained men
Vasco de Gama
• Found the passage around the Cape of Good Hope to India.
• His discovery of this route allowed Portugal to dominate the spice trade.
Christopher Columbus
• Financed by Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain
• Searching for a sea route west to Asia.
Columbus
• Pinta, Nina, Santa Maria.
• Landed in the Caribbean, though he believed it was the Indies
Americas
• Gold, silver and other riches.• Led to numerous expeditions first from
Portugal and Spain and other European countries.
Columbian Exchange
• Transfer of foods, diseases, animals from one continent to the other as a result of explorations
• 1494 The Treaty of Tordesillas divides the world between Spain and Portugal for the alleged purpose of spreading Christianity.
• Line of Demarcation determined by Pope Alexander VI
Explorations continued
• Portugal and Spain led the way in overseas exploration.
• Later, the English, French, and Dutch joined.• Circumnavigation of the Globe• Search for a northwest passage to Asia.