A Changing World

Expanding Horizons

• The first thing we need to do is look back through history at some important events that would all go together in creating the urge that many European nations had for exploration.

Expanding Horizons• c. 200 B.C. – The Chinese begin to develop a series of

trade routes which connects the east to the west. For the first time luxury goods (silk, tea, spices, pepper, etc) begin to find their way to the people of Europe.

• Silk Road

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eO1E8x27LVE

Expanding Horizons

• 27 B.C. – Augustus comes to power in Rome. His rise marks the beginning of the Roman Empire.

Expanding Horizons

• c. A.D. 33 – Jesus Christ is crucified. His teachings and life soon become the basis for the Christian religion. After some trouble it will soon spread throughout the Roman Empire.

Expanding Horizons

• c. A.D. 475 – The last western Roman emperor is overthrown. This marks the fall of the Roman Empire. It also begins a period when those luxury goods coming along the Silk Road become harder to get.

Expanding Horizons

• A.D. 610 – Islam is founded in Saudi Arabia. It quickly spreads throughout the Middle East and Northern Africa.

Expanding Horizons

• A.D. 1096 – Pope Urban II calls for the crusades to help the Byzantine Empire against the Islamic Seldjuk Turks and to free the city of Jerusalem (an important city in the Christian faith). A crusade is a term often used when referring to conflicts between religions.

• The crusades were largely failures, but they did a lot to reestablish European interest in trade with the East. It would now just have to go through Islamic traders.

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbA7owKfOHo

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weMhSSYoRi4

Expanding Horizons

• In 1295, after traveling across Asia and learning about China's culture, Marco Polo returned to Italy and wrote a book about the wonders of Asia. His book, Travels, inspired Christopher Columbus and others to find a route to the East.

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTsp03h7bMg

Expanding Horizons

• Italian merchants made money by selling spices and luxuries (silks, perfumes, and gems) from the Orient to wealthy Europeans. The merchants bought luxuries from Arab traders in the Middle East who sold goods from the Orient. The goods arrived in Italian ports by ship after being transported over land to the Mediterranean Sea. The Arab merchants sold the goods for a very high price. However, as East-West trade increased, Europeans began to look for other routes to the East that avoided the Arab traders.

Expanding Horizons