Early Exploration

The Search for New Trade Routes

• In 1492, Christopher Columbus sailed on a voyage into the unknown.
• On October 12, 1492, Columbus found new land.
• He thought he had arrived in the Indies (islands southeast of China).

• Columbus actually landed in North America.

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• Before Columbus, no one knew North America existed.

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• Portugal was actually the first country to explore the world’s boundaries.

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• Portugal did not have a port on the Mediterranean Sea and could not use the existing trade routes used by Asia and Europe.

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• Portugal needed a better route so that they could also get gold and other riches.

The Beginning of Portuguese Exploration

• Portugal’s Prince Henry started the era of exploration.

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• Prince Henry
• Known as Henry the Navigator
• Planned voyages and analyzed reports from his crew
• He also set up a navigation school in of Portugal

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• Navigation School:
• astronomers, geographers, and mathematicians shared knowledge with Portuguese sailors, shipbuilders, and mapmakers.

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• Each successful trip, mapmakers would update his charts.

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• King John II of Portugal launched new efforts to create a Portuguese trading empire in Asia.
• Needed to find a sea route around Africa.

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Bartolomeu Dias

• In 1487, Bartolomeu Dias left Spain with two small caravels and a supply ship.
• Sent by King John to explore the southernmost part of Africa.

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• In South Africa, they faced a fierce storm that carried off course and out of sight of land.

• When the storm died down, Dias steered them east and north until he found land.

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• Dias realised he had already sailed past the southernmost part of Africa.
• “The Cape of Good Hope” – hoped that the passage might provide a new route to India.

Vasco da Gama

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• In July 1497, Vasco da Gama set sail from Portugal with four ships headed for Africa.
• de Gama sailed a wide arc south and west of Africa
• Hopefully safer than Cape of Good Hope.
• De Gama had successfully sailed around Africa and reached the Indian port of Calicut in May of 1498.

Portugal’s Trading Empire

• After de Gama’s return, Pedro Alvares Cabral set out from Portugal.

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• He planned to follow da Gama’s course,
• Went too far west
• Reached Brazil.
• Claimed Brazil for Portugal
• Portugal now had a foothold in the Americas.

What was the importance of the voyages of Dias and de Gama?

Columbus Crosses the Atlantic

• Columbus was born in Genoa, Italy but sailed for Portugal.

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• To reach Asia, Columbus had a new idea– sail west.

• In the 1400s, the most educated people believed the world was round, but didn’t know full size.
• Columbus based his estimates on Ptolemy, an ancient Greek astronomer.
• Ptolemy underestimated the size of the world, and so Columbus did too.
• Believed voyage would take two months; took longer.

Vikings in North America

• Several centuries before, northern Europeans had sailed to North America

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• Vikings or Norsemen sailed ships from present day Scandinavia to Iceland and Greenland in the 800 and 900s C.E.
• settled there briefly

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• Viking sailor Leif Eriksson explored Greenland in 1000 AD.

Columbus and Queen Isabella

• Columbus needed money to finance his westward journey.

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• Found a sponsor in Spain.

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Columbus and Queen Isabella

• King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain agreed to finance Columbus for two reasons.
• 1. Columbus promised to bring Christianity to any lands he found.
• 2. If he succeeded, Spain would become wealthy from trade.
• Queen Isabella promised Columbus a share of any riches he gained from lands he discovered on his way to Asia.

Columbus’s First Voyage

• On August 3, 1492 Columbus set sail from Spain.
• Nina , Pinta, and Santa Maria.
• After a few weeks at sea, the sailors grew nervous about how far they traveled
• Columbus refused to change course.
• Encouraged the sailors by describing the riches he believed they would find.
• Spotted land in October, 1492

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• Found an island in Bahamas
• Columbus went ashore and claimed the island for Spain, naming it “San Salvador”
• Columbus believed he had arrived in the East Indies: islands of the coast of Asia.
• Columbus referred to natives as “Indians”
• Queen Isabella honored him and provided more funds for further exploration.

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Columbus’s Achievements

• Columbus made three more voyages for Spain in 1493, 1498, and 1502.
• Explored islands of Haiti and the Dominican Republic, Cuba, and Jamaica.
• He also sailed along coast of Central America and claimed land for Spain

Dividing the Americas

• Spain and Portugal wanted to protect their claims in the Americas
• Asked Pope Alexander VI for help.
• In 1493, he ordered a line of demarcation: an imaginary line from the North Pole to the South Pole and cut through the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
• Spain was to control all land west of the line, and Portugal would control all land east.

Dividing the Americas

• Portugal objected as they felt it gave more land to Spain.
• In 1494, Spain & Portugal signed the Treaty of Tordesillas which moved the line of demarcation farther west.
• They then divided the unexplored world between themselves.

Further Explorations

• In 1499 Italian Amerigo Vespucci explored the coast of South America.
• Funded by Spain
• Realized South America was a separate continent
• Europeans called the continent America in his honor.

Further Explorations

• A Spaniard, Vasco Nunez de Balboa heard stories of the “great waters” beyond the mountains of Panama.

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• In 1513, Balboa saw the vast body of water, making him the first European to see the Pacific Ocean from the Americas.

Sailing Around the World

• In 1520, Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese explorer who was sailing for Spain, reached the southernmost tip of South America.
• Magellan would die in the Philippines but his crew continued to sail westward
• His crew was the first people known to circumnavigate the world.