World History / Unit 6: Renaissance, Reformation and the Age of Exploration
6.5 The Age of Exploration
Notes
Beginning in the 1400s, Europeans sailed to find new sea routes to Asia.
- Motives ("God, gold and glory"): spreading Christianity, gaining wealth from spices and gold, and national pride. The Ottomans controlled overland trade routes, so Europeans sought sea routes.
- Technology: the caravel (a small, fast ship), the magnetic compass, the astrolabe and better maps. Many of these came from Asian and Muslim sources.
- Portugal led first. Prince Henry the Navigator sponsored voyages along Africa. Bartolomeu Dias rounded the Cape of Good Hope (1488). Vasco da Gama reached India (1498).
- Christopher Columbus, sailing for Spain, reached the Caribbean in 1492, thinking he was near Asia.
- The Treaty of Tordesillas (1494) divided newly claimed lands between Spain and Portugal; Portugal's share included Brazil.
- Ferdinand Magellan's expedition (1519 to 1522) was the first to sail around the world. Magellan was killed in the Philippines; Juan Sebastián Elcano completed the voyage.
Practice
Why did Europeans look for sea routes to Asia in the 1400s?
Direct sea routes promised greater profits.
Put these voyages in order: (1) Columbus reaches the Caribbean, (2) Dias rounds the Cape of Good Hope, (3) Magellan's expedition sets out, (4) da Gama reaches India.
1488, 1492, 1498, 1519.
The Treaty of Tordesillas was an agreement between:
A line divided lands outside Europe between the two powers.
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