1-2: An Age of Exploration

1. 1-2: An Age of Exploration European exploration resulted in the Columbian Exchange, linking the Americas to Europe and Asia.

2. Anticipatory Set What challenges did the first European explorers face and what mistaken beliefs did they have to overcome to reach distant continents?

3. California Standards • Social Studies Standard 7.11.1: Know the great voyages of discovery, the locations of the routes, and the influence of cartography in the development of a new European worldview. • Social Studies Standard 7.11.2: Discuss the exchanges of plants, animals, technology, culture, and ideas among Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Americas in the 15th and 16th centuries.

4. Input • cartographer: creates maps and sea charts • colony: a group of people who settle in a new place but are ruled by the government of their native land • plantation: a large estate farmed by many workers. • circumnavigate: Magellan was the first explorer to lead an expedition that went around the world.

5. Input • The World in the 1400’s • The Americas: • The Incan Empire dominated South America • The Aztecs built a great empire in what is now Mexico. • Small groups lived by hunting and collecting wild foods on the West Coast of North America. • In the Great Plains, hunters followed herds of wandering buffalo. • In the Northeast, the Iroquois • farmed and developed a • complex form of government. Iroquois League

6. Input & Modeling • The World in the 1400’s • Trade Networks: • A vast trade network, dominated by Muslims, stretched from Africa to China. • In West Africa, the Muslim empire of Songhai dominated trade in the Sahara region. • Muslims traded with China along the Silk Road. Silk Road

7. Input & Modeling • Europe Begins to Explore • Looking Outward: • Trade increased between Europe and the Middle East between 1100 and 1300. • Muslim sailors passed on the magnetic compass and astrolabe to Europeans. Europeans could now make longer sea voyages. • In the 1300s, the Renaissance began in Europe. Discoveries in art, medicine, and science led to inventions like the printing press which helped to spread Greek and Roman ideas. • Prince Henry hired cartographers. This helped Vasco da Gama round the southern tip of Africa to get to Asia. Leonardo da Vinci

8. Input & Modeling • Columbus Reaches the Americas • Landing: • On October 12, 1492 Columbus landed with part of his crew on an island in the Bahamas and claimed the land for Spain. There he met people known as the Tainos (tye-a-no). • Columbus returned to Spain and told Spanish rulers Ferdinand and Isabella that he had found the fringes of Asia. • Within a few decades, Spain toppled the • empires of the Incas and Aztecs. • They set up colonies from Mexico through • most of South America. Cortes conquered the Aztecs

9. Input & Modeling • The Columbian Exchange • New Products and Ideas: • The voyages of Columbus (aka, The Columbian Exchange) started a worldwide exchange of products and ideas. • Products from America, such as potatoes, corn, tomatoes, beans, squash, peanuts, and pineapples were brought to the rest of the world. • Europeans brought chickens, pigs, cattle, and horses to America. They also introduced bananas and citrus fruits. • Europeans introduced new religions and new ways of organizing governments. Spanish Missionary

10. Input • The Columbian Exchange • Disease: • Disease was part of the Columbian Exchange. Native Americans were exposed to smallpox and influenza for the first time. • Within 75 years of Columbus’s arrival, almost 90 percent of the people in the Caribbean islands and Mexico had died of European diseases.

11. Input • The Columbian Exchange • Growth of Slavery: • The Spanish enslaved Native • Americans to work in gold and • silver mines and on plantations. • The Spanish soon began bringing in slaves from Africa, believing they were less prone to European diseases. • In the Americas, a harsh system of slavery developed over time. • A complex slave trade network arose. • Over three centuries, an estimated 10 million captive Africans were carried into slavery in the Americas. About 500,000 ended up in British colonies in North America.

12. Check forUnderstanding • Who traded with Africa before Europeans began to explore? • China • What did Vasco da Gama sail around to get to Asia? • Africa

13. Check forUnderstanding • Who claimed the land in the Bahamas for Spain? • Columbus • How did the Columbian Exchange affect the world? • worldwide spread of ideas and products

14. HOMEWORK EXTENSION • Write a detailed SUMMARY of the section and complete the UNANSWERED QUESTIONS section of your notes. • Choose two of the remaining Depth & Complexity ICONS in your notes and explain how they relate to this section.