Social Studies

Chapter 3The Age of Exploration

Why did he become famous?

• He was a famous sailor and explorer.

• He led a voyage from the Old World in search of a new route to India and China.

• He landed in the Americas. They were also called the New World during the years that Columbus was alive.

• His discoveries inspired the European countries to explore and colonize the Americas.

What are the Americas?

• They include the continents of North America and South America.

• The Americas include Canada, the United States of America, Mexico, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Brazil, the Bahamas, and many other countries.

The Americas

What was the New World and the Old World?

• The New World were the countries that made up the Americas. The people who lived in Europe and Asia knew little to nothing about these lands.

• The Old World were the continents of Europe, Asia, and Africa.

The Vision for the Future

• In 1486, Columbus asked the leaders of Spain to pay for a trip to find a new route to Asia. They said no to his request.

• In 1492, Columbus asked King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella a second time to sponsor his voyage to Asia. This time they agreed to pay his fees.

What were the names of Columbus’s three ships?

• The Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria were the three ships that Columbus used to reach the New World.

Columbus Sails West

• Columbus set sail from Spain with three ships on August 3, 1492.

How many days where the sailors and Columbus at sea?

• It took Columbus and the sailors thirty-six days to reach the New World by ship.

When did Columbus reach the New World?

• Shortly after midnight on October 12, 1492, a sailor on board the Pinta saw land on the horizon.

Where did Columbus land?

• He named the island San Salvador. It is now part of the present-day Bahamas.

• Columbus thought he was really near India.

• He then named the area the West Indies.

• He named the people he met the Indians.

• He also visited the islands of present-day Cuba and Hispaniola.

Columbus’s Voyage

Exploration Continues

• People began to hear about the amazing things that Columbus had done in the New World. Many other countries began to send their own explorers to the New World.

• Two or the more famous explorers to follow in Columbus’s footsteps were Amerigo Vespuci and Vasco Nunez de Balboa.

Who am I?

• He was a soldier and sailor.

• He believed he could sail from Spain to go to the bottom of South America to reach the Pacific Ocean. He wanted to then sail around the bottom of Africa to finally return back in Spain.

Magellan’s Voyage

• He sailed in September 1519. • He named the Pacific Ocean, because it looked so calm.

The word Pacific means peaceful.• Many of his sailors died along the way.• Magellan was killed in a battle on the islands of the

Philippines.• His remaining crew returned back to Spain.• The arrived in September of 1522. • Only 18 of the 250 sailors that went with Magellan

returned home alive.• These men were the first explorers to circumnavigate the

world.

The End