The era known as the Age of Exploration, sometimes called the Age of Discovery, officially began in the early 15th century and lasted through the 17th century. The period is characterized as a time when Europeans began exploring the world by sea in search of new trading routes, wealth, and knowledge.

1. The Age of Exploration & Discoveries
Europe Encounters the World
Boutkhil Guemide
University Mohammed Boudiaf, M’sila
Algeria

2. ►During the fifteenth and the sixteenth century,
the states of Europe began their modern
exploration of the world with a series of sea
voyages.
►Spain and Portugal were foremost in this
enterprise.
►These explorations increased European
knowledge of the wider world, particularly in
relation to sub-Saharan Africa and the Americas.
►These explorations were frequently connected to
conquest and missionary work, as the states of
Europe attempted to increase their influence,
both in political and religious terms, throughout
the world.

3. Why did explorations happen?
►A variety of factors all came
together to make the time period
(1450- 1700) the “ Age of
Exploration”
►Some of these factors were
agricultural and other resources
they wished to have (gold, silver,
spices, precious stones, etc.)
►Some were pulls, motivations and

4. What factors were pushing
Europeans to explore?
►Decline of Mongol
Empire in 1400s made
goods from the east
harder to get, more
expensive
►Fall of Constantinople to
the Ottoman Turks in
1453 was a major block
to trade

5. Ottoman Turks (Muslim) Empire

9. The First G: Gold
►Gold was a hot item that explorers were looking
for, but it is really wealth, not just literal gold
that explorers were after.
►Europe needed gold (and silver) to fuel the rising
banking system
►Europeans also desired spices (Da Gama ’ s
voyage to India made him a 3000% profit!)
►Other natural resources would come to be sold
for profit as well (timber, sugar, tobacco, ivory,
etc.)
►This competition will be enhanced by the idea of
mercantilism that emerges, the idea that there
is only so much wealth in the world, and that to
make your kingdom strong you must have more
gold and wealth than the other kingdoms

10. The second G: Glory
► Just like the first G, Gold,
Glory was a relatively new
idea in Europe
► Came out of the Renaissance
ideal of Humanism, and the
focus on individual
achievement
► With the rise of the printing
press, the idea of gaining
fame for one’s actions was
more possible
► Also, individual kings wanted
glory for their kingdoms,
competition spreads
The Triumph of Fame, a Flemish tapestry from 1502.

11. The third G: God
►As members of a universalizing
religion, Europeans had always seen
spreading Christianity as a good thing
►Especially after the Reformation,
competition will spring up
►Colonization will become a race to
convert native peoples to a particular
brand of Christianity
►Jesuits (Catholics) are some of the
most active

12. New technologies enabled
explorations
►The caravel was a new, faster,
more maneuverable ship
►Caravels had triangular sails
(easier to change direction)
►Bilge pump system enabled
ship to float higher (less likely
to run aground, easier to
explore coasts and rivers)
►Compass, astrolabe, maps,
sextant and other technologies
from Islamic culture all helped
make explorations possible

13. New Maritime Technology
Hartman Astrolabe (1532)
Mariner’s Compass
Better Maps
Sextant

14. New Weapons Technology

15. The Age of Exploration
► Prince Henry the
Navigator of Portugal –
Began exploring the
western and SW coasts of
Africa.
► Bartholomew Diaz –
rounded the southern tip of
Africa in 1488.

16. How did these explorations begin?
► The first to encourage new ship
explorations was Prince Henry of
Portugal, known as “ Prince
Henry the Navigator”
► Started an institute for seafaring
and exploring
► Combined ship technology
learned from Islam with new
European innovations
► By the time of his death in 1460,
Portuguese had sailed as far
south as the Gold Coast of West
Africa

17. The Explorers: Portugal
►Sailed around Cape
of Good Hope at the
southern tip of
Africa
►Found route to
Indian Ocean
►Trade can go from
Europe to Asia by
sea
Bartolomeu Diaz

19. Vasco da Gama
►Vasca da Gama -
Sailed around the
continent of Africa and
reached India in 1498.
Opened a trade route
with Asia.
►Landed in India in
1498
►Important trade route
from Europe to India
and East Indies

20. Vasco da Gama Voyage

21. Ferdinand Magellan
►His crew made first
voyage around the
world
►Proved for certain
that the world was
round
►Magellan was killed
in the Philippines, did
not make it home

24. Early Americans
► Coming to America: Who Was First?
► Ice Age: 35.000 years ago
► 12,000 years ago: the first Americans crossed the
Beiring Strait (a land bridge joining Siberia and Alaska
together)
► They lived in what now is Alaska for thousands of years,
then moved south into today’s mainland United States.
They lived by the Pacific Ocean in the Northwest, in the
mountains and deserts of the Southwest, and along the
Mississippi River in the Midwest.
► These early groups are known as Hohokam, Adenans,
Hopewellians, and Anasazi.
► They built villages and grew crops. Their lives were
connected to the land. Family and community were
important to them.

26. Columbus Competitors: The Theories
► 889 A. D.: A Moorish Sea Captain, named “Khachkhach”, sailed from Cordoba,
in Spain, with his crew and reached the Ameican shores after crossing the
Atlantic Ocean. He returned back after meeting with the Natives who seemed to
be of African origins. Bringing gold and silver with him, he realized that the new
lands were abundant in natural resources.
► Al Idrissi (1099- 1180): A map of the world in which he named the new land
reached by the said Moorish sea captain “Unknown Land”. (Yussuf Miroua)
► Abu Bakr, Prince of Mali, is said to sail from the Western Coasts of Mali, crossing
the Atlantic ocean and reaching the US Coasts. He sailed with 200 ships full with
food and gold. However, only one ship survived and returned back.
► “We sailed for a long period time. After reaching the Atlantic Ocean, we entered
a river stream with a high, dreadful pressure. My ship was at the back; I saw
the ships advancing towards the stream, and then disappeared one after the
other. So, I decided to turn back” (Chehab Eddine Al Omari, 1327).
► Christopher Columbus met with people who seemed like African natives in their
physical appearance. This confirms that Abu Bakr survived and lived in America.
► Sixth Century— Irish Monks: This "theory" is actually more of a legend. A
sixth-century Irish monk named Saint Brendan supposedly sailed to North
America on a currach— a wood-framed boat covered with animal skin. His
alleged journey is detailed in the ancient annals of Ireland. Brendan was a real
historical figure who traveled extensively in Europe. But there is no evidence
that he ever made landfall in North America.

27. ► 10th Century— The Vikings: The Vikings' early expeditions to North
America are well documented and accepted as historical fact by most
scholars. Around the year 1000 A.D., the Viking explorer Leif Erikson,
son of Erik the Red, sailed to a place he called "Vinland," in what is
now the Canadian province of Newfoundland. Erikson and his crew
didn't stay long— only a few years— before returning to Greenland.
► 15th Century— The Chinese: This theory is espoused by a small
group of scholars and amateur historians led by Gavin Menzies, a
retired British Naval officer. It asserts that a Muslim-Chinese eunuch-
mariner from the Ming Dynasty discovered America 71 years before
Columbus.
► Zheng commanded a huge armada of wooden sailing vessels in the
early 15th century. He explored Southeast Asia, India and the east
coast of Africa using navigational techniques that were, at the time,
cutting edge. It is asserted that Zheng sailed to the east coast of the
United States, and may have established settlements in South America.
► Menzies based his theory on evidence from old shipwrecks, Chinese
and European maps, and accounts written by navigators of the time.
Indeed, most historians say the "China first" theory is full of holes.

28. Christopher Columbus

29. Columbus’ Voyages to America
► Columbus was the first to create extended interest in the New World and make it a
centerpiece of colonization efforts by the Spanish, French, English, and others.
► Christopher Columbus: Italian born in Genoa,
► He had lived for years in Portugal,
► bookseller, a mapmaker, and a sailor.
► Sailing to Iceland in the North Atlantic and down the coast of Africa in the South
Atlantic.
► Columbus believed that the Earth was round, not flat.
► The Ocean Sea was seen as a great expanse of water surrounding much of Eurasia
and Africa, stretching from Europe to China and Japan in the Far East.
► If a ship left the coast of Europe, sailed west toward the setting sun, and circled the
globe, it would reach the shores of Asia—or so Columbus thought.
► In the past, European explorers and traders had taken the overland route to the Far
East, with its precious silks and spices. They traveled for months by horse and camel
along the Silk Road, an ancient caravan trail that crossed deserts and climbed
dizzying mountain peaks.
► But recently, this land route to Asia, controlled in part by the Turks, had been closed
to Europeans. Also, European trades encountered attacks from the pirates.
► Columbus was convinced that he could find an easier and faster route to Asia by
sailing west.

30. ► In 1484, he proposed his bold scheme of sailing west to China to King John II of Portugal, and
then submitted the Italian sailor's plan to a committee of mapmakers, astronomers, and
geographers. The experts declared that Asia must be much farther away than Columbus thought.
► Columbus decided to approach King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain; They were curious
about the route to Asia that Columbus proposed. Like King John, they too appointed a committee
of inquiry to consider the matter, but those experts came to the same negative conclusion:
Columbus's claim about the distance to China and the ease of sailing there could not possibly be
true. Columbus persisted. He talked at length to members of the Spanish court and convinced
some of them, but Ferdinand and Isabella twice rejected his appeal for ships. Finally, he
threatened to seek support from the king of France. Columbus actually set out for France, riding a
mule down a dusty Spanish road.
► Royal advisors persuaded Ferdinand and Isabella to change their minds. If another king sponsored
Columbus, and his expedition turned out to be a success, then the Spanish monarchs would be
embarrassed. They would be criticized in Spain. “Let Columbus risk his life”, the advisors said. “Let
him seek out the grandeurs and secrets of the universe." If he succeeded, Spain would win much
glory and would overcome the Portuguese lead in the race to exploit the riches of Asia.
► Ferdinand and Isabella decided to take a chance. They were ready to grant him a hereditary title,
Admiral of the Ocean Sea, and the right to a tenth of any riches—pearls, gold, silver, silks, spices—
that he brought back from his voyage. And they agreed to supply two ships for his expedition.
► August 3, 1492, the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa María sailed from the port of Palos, Spain,
carrying some ninety crew members in all. Columbus kept several hourglasses to mark the passage
of time, a compass, and an astrolabe, an instrument for calculating latitude by observing the
movement of the sun.
► The little fleet stopped for repairs at La Gomera in the Canary Islands, a Spanish possession off the
coast of Morocco. On September 6, Columbus and his three ships set sail again, heading due west,
moving now through the unknown waters of the Ocean Sea. Five weeks later, on October 12, his
worried crew finally sighted land.

32. Voyages of Columbus

34. ► Columbus tells us a few things about these now-extinct people. He was impressed by their
good looks and apparent robust health. "They are very well-built people, with handsome
bodies and very fine faces," he wrote in his log. "Their eyes are large and very pretty. . . .
These are tall people and their legs, with no exceptions, are quite straight, and none of them
has a paunch." Many of the Tainos had painted their faces or their whole bodies black or
white or red. And as Columbus and his men noticed right away, some of them wore gold
earrings and nose rings. They offered gifts to the European visitors—parrots, wooden
javelins, and balls of cotton thread.
► They proceeded onward and landed in Cuba. Finally, they continued onward, arriving at the
island of Hispaniola, which is modern-day Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
► He returned to a triumphant welcome. It was said that when Ferdinand and Isabella
received him at their court in Barcelona.
► A second voyage was planned. This time, the monarchs gave Columbus seventeen ships,
about fifteen hundred men, and a few women to colonize the islands. He was instructed to
continue his explorations, establish gold mines, install settlers, develop trade with the
Indians, and convert them to Christianity.
► When he returned to Hispaniola on his third voyage in 1498, he found the island in turmoil,
torn by rivalries and disagreements among the settlers. Many colonists, unable to make a
living from the gold mines or by farming, were clamoring to return to Spain. Others, rivals of
Columbus who wanted to gain control of the colony, rebelled against his rule.
► Columbus died in a Spanish monastery on May 20, 1506, at the age of fifty-seven, still
believing that he had found a new route to Asia, and that China and Japan lay just beyond
the islands he had explored. By then, other explorers were following the sea route pioneered
by the Admiral of the Ocean Sea, and Europeans were already speaking of Columbus's
discoveries as a "New World."

35. ► Christopher Columbus did all the discovering, yet it was Americus
Vespucci whose name got put on the land.
► Now Americus Vespucci was an adventurer just like Columbus. He made
several trips across the ocean and went way down the coast of South
America.
► But what made him famous was that he wrote about his trips. His letters
were so fascinating that everyone wanted to read them. And, thanks to
Gutenberg’s printing press, many people did.
► Amerigo Vespucci did something else that was important: He understood
that there was a huge continent over here, a continent new to
Europeans, and he said so in his writings. He called it a “New World.”
► Vespucci looked at the land of South America with an open mind.
► “In those southern parts, I have found a continent more densely peopled
and abounding in animals than our Europe or Asia or Africa.”.
► A man named Martin Waldseemuller actually named America. He was a
printer and mapmaker who was fascinated by Vespucious’s letters.
► In 1507 Waldseemuller printed a huge world map, and on it he put a
new continent.
► Waldseemuller used information from the voyages of Columbus and
Vespucci to make the map. He decided to put the name America on the
southern continent, since Amerigo had written about it.

38. Line of Demarcation

40. The Age of Exploration
► France and the Netherlands.
► Samuel de Champlain explored the St. Lawrence River.
► In 1608, he founded a fur-trading post at Quebec. This post
became the first permanent French settlement in North
America. Champlain’s activities opened a rich fur trade with
local Native Americans.
► New France.
► The Dutch were building a colony: New Amsterdam.
► It was located along the Hudson River in present-day New
York.
► After Hudson’s voyage up the river in 1609, the Dutch built Fort
Nassau in 1614, near the site of the modern city of Albany.
► In 1626, the Dutch bought Manhattan Island from Native
Americans.
► The colony was soon thriving from the fur trade with Native
Americans.

42. The Age of Exploration
► Rene- Robert de La Salle
► He sailed to a French colony in Canada and became a fur trader.
► Indians told him of two great rivers (the Mississippi and Ohio).
► He made several explorations of them. He died in 1687.
► Father Jacques Marquette
► Marquette was born in Laon, France, in the summer of 1637.
► He joined the Jesuits at age seventeen.
► He founded missions all over the place. He explored many rivers.
► Louis Jolliet
► Jolliet was born in a settlement near Quebec City.
► He explored many rivers with Marquette.
► Jacques Cartier (1491-1551)
► Jacques Cartier was an explorer who claimed Canada for France.
► He was born in Saint Malo, France in 1491.
► He was also the first European, not just the first Frenchman to describe
and chart Saint Lawrence River and Gulf of Saint Lawrence.
► He made three important voyages.
► He died in Saint Malo, in 1551.

43. The Age of Exploration
►John Cabot –
Discovered
Newfoundland
(Canada) in
1497.

44. Impacts of European Expansion
1.Native populations ravaged by
disease.
2.Influx of gold, and especially
silver, into Europe created an
inflationary economic climate.
[“Price Revolution”]
3.New products introduced across
the continents [“Columbian
Exchange”].
4.Deepened colonial rivalries.