The ExplorersThe ExplorersThe ExplorersThe Explorers

Spanish and PortugueseSpanish and Portuguese

Today we will…• Explore the reasons why people

went off to explore.• Describe the new technology

which made exploration possible.• Learn about the Portuguese and

Spanish Explorers

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Why Go Explore?

• European Curiosity About the Far East– Marco Polo (13th

Century visit to Cathay (China))

– Europeans desired silks and spices of the East and wanted to eliminate the Moslem middlemen.

– Renaissance Spirit of Inquiry

Muslims Control the Trade Routes

Why Go Explore?• Wealth and Ambitions of

the New National States– By the 16th century, many

European states had the wealth to sponsor such voyages.

– The rising middle class desired trade.

– The absolute monarchs sought colonial empires and were willing to risk it all for the hope of great profits.

Scientific Progress – New Technology

• Ships – Caravels– These ships had both

Triangular Sails and Square sails.

– Also, a moveable rudder.• Better Cartography

– Better maps make exploration easier

• Mariners Compass– Helping determine direction

is an essential part of navigation

• Astrolabe– An instrument for

determining latitudes

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Portuguese Explorers

Prince Henry the Navigator - Portugal

• In the mid 1400’s, Prince Henry Sponsored voyages to the NW coast of Africa.

• One of Henry’s navigators discovered the Azores Islands.

• He is one of the first to use the new type of ships called the Caravel.

Bartolomeu Dias• In 1487, he made it to

the tip of Africa and started to go towards India.

• Severe storms hit his expedition and he named this cape – The Cape of Bad Storms.

• Upon learning about this, the Portuguese King renamed this – The Cape of Good Hope.

• Why? It gives us hope that someone, someday will make it around Africa and sail to India.

Vasco da Gama• He was the first explorer

to successfully sail around Africa to India in 1498.

• He was given the title – Admiral of the Indian Ocean.

• He brought wool sweaters, tin trinkets and glass beads to trade with.

• He attained a reputation as a “fixer.”

• He died of malaria on Christmas eve in 1524.

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Spanish Explorers

Christopher Columbus - Spain

• Columbus set sail in 1492 to try and find a western route to the Indies.

• He made four voyages to the New World.

• He mistakenly labeled the native inhabitants – Indians.

• Was Columbus Greedy or Nice?

• Why do we celebrate Columbus day?

• Did he discover the New World?

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Vasco nunes de Balboa• He discovered the South

Seas (Pacific Ocean) in 1513.• Upon his travels, he met up

with Francisco Pizarro in 1518 in Panama.

• Both men were searching for gold and someone told them of a city where the streets were “paved in Gold.”

• Upon hearing this, Pizarro arrested Balboa and tried him for treason.

• Balboa was found guilty and was beheaded by an axe.

• It took four tries to behead him.

Ferdinand Magellan• Magellan was a Portuguese

sailor who fell out of favor with the King of Portugal.

• He worked with a mathematician and determined the world was round.

• His goal was to get to the Spice Islands.

• Of the 270 crew members who set out with Magellan to circumnavigate the globe, only 18 managed to return to Spain and thereby complete the circumnavigation.

• Magellan died in the Philippines.

When morning came, forty-nine of us leaped into the water up to our thighs, and walked through water for more than two cross-bow flights before we could reach the shore. The boats could not approach nearer because of certain rocks in the water. The other eleven men remained behind to guard the boats. When we reached land, [the natives] had formed in three divisions to the number of more than one thousand five hundred people. When they saw us, they charged down upon us with exceeding loud cries... The musketeers and crossbow-men shot from a distance for about a half-hour, but uselessly... Recognizing the captain, so many turned upon him that they knocked his helmet off his head twice... A native hurled a bamboo spear into the captain's face, but the latter immediately killed him with his lance, which he left in the native's body. Then, trying to lay hand on sword, he could draw it out but halfway, because he had been wounded in the arm with a bamboo spear. When the natives saw that, they all hurled themselves upon him. One of them wounded him on the left leg with a large cutlass, which resembles a scimitar, only being larger. That caused the captain to fall face downward, when immediately they rushed upon him with iron and bamboo spears and with their cutlasses, until they killed our mirror, our light, our comfort, and our true guide. When they wounded him, he turned back many times to see whether we were all in the boats. Thereupon, beholding him dead, we, wounded, retreated, as best we could, to the boats, which were already pulling off.

Antonio Pigafetta, a Wealthy Businessman who observed his death

An Account of Magellan’s Death

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Amerigo Vespucci

• An Italian sailor who made many claims that he sailed to the New World.

• A German map maker was looking to name the New World and called it “America” after him.

• Some debate if he ever really traveled to the New World.

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The Conquistadors• Spanish Men who

were in search of the three G’s:

• Gold• Glory• God

Hernando Cortes

• He conquered the Native American Tribe – The Aztecs

Francisco Pizarro

• He conquered the Native American Tribe – The Incas

Where did these originate? (Old or New World)

• Corn• Potato• Chocolate• Tomato• Tobacco• Blueberry

• Horse• Honeybee• Sugar Cane• Citrus Fruit• Banana• Olive

The Columbian Exchange

• The exchange of food, animals, and diseases from the Old World to the New (vice versa).