Spain Claims Empire

The Explorers

How many of you would join a voyage of exploration? Why or why not?

What are some of the pros/cons of going?What thoughts would have gone through your

head as you set sail into an unmapped world, knowing you might come face to face with wild beasts, dangerous cannibals or worse?

What would you have been hoping to gain as a result of your hardships and travels?

How do you think you would have felt when your life of an explorer was over? 

Would you join a voyage of exploration?

Spain and Portugal CompeteIn 1493, to solve

dispute between Spain and Portugal, Pope Alexander VI drew a line down the middle of the Atlantic (THE LINE OF DEMARCATION)

All non-Christian lands to the east = Portugal

All non-Christian lands to the west = Spain

The Treaty of TordesillasKing John II of

Portugal is not happy and meets with Spain to move the line

TREATY OF TORDESILLAS (1494): the line is moved 800 miles to the west

This led to an explosion of EXPLORATION!

Why is this important?

1. To spread Christianity through MISSIONARIES

3 Main Goals of Exploring2. To build an empire

MERCANTILISM is the process through which more goods leave a country than enter

3. To gain riches and wealth through mercantilism

1. Provided mines of gold and silver

2. Produced goods, including crops

3. Served as a market for home country

How do COLONIES help?

The Explorers

Amerigo VespucciItalian1501Set out to find AsiaRealized New World

was not AsiaDescribed land in

detail to mapmaker who called the New World America!

Vasco Nunez de Balboa

Spain1513Led expedition

through Panama to the Pacific

When stood in Pacific, claimed all of the land around for Spain

Ferdinand MagellanPortugal1519Wanted to reach Asia

by sailing west around South America

Funded by Spain5 ships, 240 menSucceeded and made

it to the Philippines

“We were three months and twenty days without…fresh food. We ate biscuit, which was no longer biscuit, but powder of biscuits swarming with worms…We drank…water that had been putrid for many days.” – Antonio Pigafetta

Magellan died in battle in the Philippines…Only one of five

ships returned…

Rumors of golden cities attracted Spanish explorers…who ultimately found nothing!

If you could go on a journey of exploration today (somewhere you have never been) where would you go?

What research would you do and what preparations would you make?

How would your journey be different from the explorers of the 1500’s?

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