New Global Connections (1415-1796)
Lesson 1 Europeans Explore Overseas
New Global Connections (1415-1796)
Lesson 1 Europeans Explore Overseas
Learning Objectives
• Understand the major causes of European exploration.
• Analyze early Portuguese and Spanish explorations and expansion.
• Describe how the Portuguese established footholds on Africa’s coasts.
• Describe European searches for a direct route to Asia.
Causes of European Exploration
Starting in the 1400s, Europeans undertook a flurry
of exploration, mapping new sea routes around the
world. This great age of exploration was fueled by
many causes, but at first, the most important cause
was the search for spices.
Causes of European Exploration
• European Trade with Asia
• Wanted Trade with Asia
• Muluccas- most spices came from these Island in
Indonesia – PEPPER!
• The Drive to Explore
• Overland trade and Med. trade controlled by Italians
and Merchants
• Need new way to Asia
• Improved Technology
• More ACC. Maps
• Astrolabe
• Caravel
• cannons
Portugal Explores the Seas
Portugal, a small nation on the western edge of Spain, led the way in
exploration. As in Spain, Christian knights in Portugal had fought to end
Muslim rule. By the 1400s, Portugal was strong enough to expand into
Muslim North Africa. In 1415, the Portuguese seized Ceuta (SAY oo tah)
on the North African coast. The victory sparked the imagination of
Prince Henry, known to history as Henry the Navigator.
Portugal Explores the Seas
• The African Coast Mapped
• Sailed along Africa mapping coast
• Spread Christianity and started slave trade
• Cartographers?
• Portuguese Footholds in Africa
• Built forts
• Vasco da Gama- 1488
• Bartholomeu Dias- Cape of Good Hope
• Attacked Mombassa and Malindi
• Beyond Africa: Reaching India
• 1497- Vasco Da Gama-
• Portuguesse continued seizing coastal towns
Columbus Searches for a Route to Asia
The profitable Portuguese voyages spurred other European
nations to seek a sea route to Asia. An Italian navigator from
the port of Genoa, Christopher Columbus, wanted to reach
the East Indies—a group of islands in Southeast Asia, today
part of Indonesia—by sailing west across the Atlantic. Like
most educated Europeans, Columbus knew that Earth was a
sphere. A few weeks sailing west, he reasoned, would bring
a ship to eastern Asia. His plan made sense, but Columbus
greatly underestimated Earth’s size—and he had no idea
that two continents, North and South America, lay in his
path.
Columbus Searches for a Route to Asia
• Reaching Faraway Lands
• Sponsored by Spain- IZZY and FERD
• 3 Ships?
• October 1492, landed
• Indians?
• Spain and Portugal Divide Up the World
• Treaty of Tordesillas- 1494
• Line of Demarcation
• Spain- Portugal-
• Naming the Western Hemisphere
• Amerigo Vespucci and Martin Waldseemuller-
The Search for a Route to the Pacific
Once Europeans realized that the Americas blocked a sea passage to India, they hunted
for a route around or through the Americas in order to reach Asia. The English, Dutch, and
French explored the coast of North America unsuccessfully for a “northwest passage,” or a
route from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific through the Arctic islands. Meanwhile, in
1513, the Spanish adventurer Vasco Núñez de Balboa, helped by local Indians, hacked a
passage westward through the tropical forests of Panama. From a ridge on the west coast,
he gazed at a huge body of water. The body of water that he named the South Sea was in
fact the Pacific Ocean.
The Search for a Route to the Pacific
• Magellan Sets Sail
• Europeans wanted route around Americas
• Vasco Nunez de Balboa-
• Ferdinand Magellan
• Straight of Magellan into the Pacific Sea which
means?
• The Long Way Home
• Magellan killed in Phillippines
• 3 years after start, 1 ship made it back with 18 sailors
• Circumnavigate
European Expansion in Africa
Following the Portuguese and Spanish examples, several
other European powers sought to expand their trade
networks. By the 1600s, the French, English, and Dutch all
had footholds along the coast of West Africa. These
outposts often changed hands as European countries
battled for control of the new trade routes. Like the
Portuguese, they used these footholds to protect and
expand their trade routes in Africa, the Indian Ocean, and
India.
European Expansion in Africa
• The Dutch Settle Cape Town
• Established Capetown- S. Africa
• Boers- Dutch farmers- pushed out the Africans
• The British and French Explore
• Also established forts in Africa
