The Age of Exploration was driven by improvements in sailing technology and the policy of mercantilism. Europeans began extensively exploring and colonizing other parts of the world. Key explorers included Bartolomeu Dias, who sailed around the Cape of Good Hope; Vasco da Gama, who found the trade route to India by sea; Ferdinand Magellan, whose crew completed the first circumnavigation of the globe; Christopher Columbus, who sought a western route to Asia but found the Americas instead, launching the massive Columbian Exchange of plants, animals, and diseases between the hemispheres; and the establishment of the triangular trade route between Europe, Africa, and the Americas, which centered on the slave trade.

1. The Age of Exploration

2. What was the Age of Exploration?
• A time period when Europeans began to
explore the rest of the world.
• Improvements in mapmaking,
shipbuilding, rigging, and navigation made
this possible.
• Blue water sailing, not just coastal boats.
• Policy of mercantilism drives the
exploration.

3. What was mercantilism?
• Policy that said there was a limited
amount of money in the world.
• Each country needs to grab what they can
before it is gone.
• Export more than you import…more
money in your pocket.
• Colonies and markets were needed to
keep everything in the system.

4. The Explorers:
Portugal

5. Bartolomeu Dias
• Sailed around Cape
of Good Hope at
southern tip of
Africa.
• Found route to
Indian Ocean
• Trade can go from
Europe to Asia by
sea.

7. Vasco da Gama
• Landed in India in
1498.
• Important trade
route from Europe to
India and East
Indies.

9. Ferdinand Magellan
• His crew made first
round-the-world
voyage.
• Proved for certain
that the world was
round.
• Magellan was killed
in the Phillippines,
did not make it
home.

12. The Explorers:
Spain

13. Christopher Columbus

14. Christopher Columbus
• Believed a shorter
route to Asia could be
found by sailing
westward instead of
around Africa.
• Found the Americas
instead. Oops.

16. What was the Colombian Exchange?
• Massive exchange of plants, animals and
diseases.
• These things moved between the New
and Old Worlds.
• Started with Columbus.
• To the Americas: cows, horses, wheat,
smallpox, plus much more.
• To Europe: potatoes, tomatoes, tobacco,
corn, plus much more.

18. The Slave Trade
• Europeans began to use slave labor in
their colonies to grow crops, mine, etc.
• Native Americans used for a while, but
Africans began to be brought to the
Americas.
• The slave trade then became the main
focus of Europe’s relations with Africa.

20. What was the Triangular Trade?
• System of trade between Europe, Africa,
and the Americas.
• Stage 1: Raw materials to Europe
(tobacco, rum, sugar)
• Stage 2: Manufactured goods to Africa
(guns, cloth, rum)
• Stage 3: Slaves to the Americas to make
raw materials.

21. The Triangular
Trade