15Th-Century Tech in PARTNERSHIP WITH
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Exploring the Americas HELLO HORSES! 15th-Century Tech IN PARTNERSHIP WITH Exploring_Americas_FC.indd 1 2/6/17 11:45 AM 2 u TRADE AND TRAVEL geography and over hundreds based on sto- The Backstory of years had pro- ries or rumors. vided Europeans They could not How much would you risk for your country? with some infor- yet cross large European explorers were willing to risk everything. mation about the oceans. So they rest of the world. knew nothing of They didn’t have a lot of information. The journey However, much of the continents that was always dangerous. They could get lost. Storms what they knew lay on the other could wreck their ships. The crew could get sick. was limited by side of the world. Still, their desire to reach the far-off regions of the world was unstoppable. They wanted wealth, fame, and adventure. They were also looking to bring glory to their country and themselves. Their journeys were often paid for, or sponsored, by monarchs seeking Trade with Asia was new trade routes, more natural resources, and new important to Europe’s economy. Europeans territory around the world. Many Europeans also cooked with pepper, wanted to spread Christianity. They saw it as their cinnamon, ginger, sacred duty. cloves, and other spices from Asia. For these reasons, explorer after explorer set sail How do you think from the mid-15th to the mid-16th centuries. This they reacted when was the beginning of the Age of Discovery, a time they could no longer get these spices? that changed the course of human history forever. exploring_americas_sp1.indd 16 2/6/17 11:57 AM 3 d THE SILK ROAD one merchant l ONE OF THE descriptions of was a collection to another. In most famous lands of riches of trade routes 1453, however, travelers of the and incredible that linked the the Ottoman Silk Road was the wonders in the Far markets of China Empire stopped Italian merchant East captured the and India with all trade with the Marco Polo. The imaginations of those of the West. That cut off records of Polo’s many Europeans. Middle East and European access travels became a Some explorers Europe. Goods to the routes. bestseller across set sail with changed hands Without a land Europe in an age copies of Polo’s many times along route, Europeans before the print- book on board the route, from looked to the sea. ing press. Polo’s their ships. d CONFLICTS the Crusades in between the Middle East Christians and to drive Muslims Muslims erupted out of Jerusalem. during the Middle Muslim invaders Ages. Backed conquered ter- by the Catholic ritory in Europe, Church, Christian including much monarchs waged of the Iberian Peninsula, which is now Spain and Portugal. Muslim people were driven out of the Iberian Peninsula during the Reconquista, a movement to make all of Spain Catholic. Because of these conflicts, u HENRY THE have to rely on of the Atlantic. one through the Muslim rulers Navigator was a trade routes con- Later, King John Mediterranean and began restricting Portuguese prince. trolled by Muslim II of Portugal sent Red Seas, and one European access He wanted a direct leaders and oth- explorers to find around the African to trade routes in source of trade ers. He sponsored sea routes to continent. North Africa and in ivory and gold; voyages to explore India. He want- the Middle East. he didn’t want to the African coast ed two routes: exploring_americas_sp1.indd 17 2/6/17 11:57 AM 4 The Technology The right tools can make any job easier. In fact, without the right tools, some jobs might not be possible at all. For a long time, lengthy sea expeditions, or voyages, were simply not worth the effort. As technology improved, crews became able to sail farther and farther from shore. Navigation, or the science of planning and following a route, became more reliable. Thanks to these advances, European explorers were able to set foot on continents they hadn’t even known existed. u IN GERMANY ideas could their stories to during the mid- spread more eas- be shared across 1400s, Johannes ily. Early explorers Europe. These Gutenberg invent- wrote about their accounts inspired ed the printing journeys. They other explorers press. Until then, wrote about what to set sail and anything written they found and monarchs to had been copied the hardships they sponsor them. by hand. Suddenly, faced. The printing knowledge and press allowed u GUNPOWDER, learned from the Chinese, and steel gave Europeans military strength. They were able to overcome just r THE ASTROLABE about any resis- was used for tance they met hundreds of years. in their travels. This hand-held Explorers had device helped with cannons and early many types of cal- firearms. Swords culations. It helped and armor made tell explorers at with Spanish steel sea where they were another were. It could tell advantage. The them their latitude, people they con- or position in rela- quered in America, tion to the equator. for example, often It could measure used weapons the angle of the made of bronze, sun at noon or of stone, or wood. other well-known stars at night. exploring_americas_sp2.indd 16 2/6/17 11:59 AM 5 r THE COMPASS IS a tool we still use today. First developed as a navigational tool in China and Europe in the 12th century, a magnetic com- pass has a needle that reacts to the magnetic pull of the Earth’s poles. A compass tells a user where north is. Once you know u THE LATEEN SAIL only trap wind from either side where north is, was one of the coming from one of the ship. Used you know the oth- most important direction. This on the Portuguese er directions. developments of limited a ship’s caravels, these sailing. Previously, mobility. The sails made the European ships lateen sail was ships faster had used square triangular, so it and more sails, which could could take wind maneuverable. l THE SEXTANT AND a circle. Degrees its predecessor, are measured the octant, mea- along that arc. sure latitude more Navigators could reliably than the read the angle of astrolabe does. the sun, the moon, The first modern or a star using sextant was pro- the sextant. Then duced in 1759. It they’d read pub- is made with an lished tables to arc of one-sixth of find their latitude. r THE CHRONOMETER and motion. The was the first tool Longitude Act of that let sailors 1714 promised measure longi- rewards for any- tude. Put simply, a one who could chronometer is a find a reliable way timekeeping tool – to measure lon- a clock that works gitude. Between at sea. Because 1735 and 1762, of the Earth’s cabinetmaker What technology regular rotation, John Harrison do you use today to time can be used built four chro- find your way? How to measure lon- nometers. He would the journeys gitude. But back eventually won of early explorers then, clocks didn’t the £20,000 have been different if work on boats prize (about $3.5 they’d had the tech- because of tem- million in today’s nology you use? perature changes money). exploring_americas_sp2.indd 17 2/6/17 11:59 AM 6 Early Exploration Have you ever heard the rhyme that starts, “In four- teen hundred ninety-two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue”? American children have been reciting that line for at least the last hundred years. It shows how import- ant the early explorers are in our history. With every expedition that set sail, the world seemed to get a little bit smaller. Nations have grown and changed so much since the first European explorers went looking for a sea route to Asia. Each early explorer had a goal and a destination in mind and set off over uncharted waters to reach it. Their journeys shaped the world, and their legacy can still be seen – and heard – today. u AMERIGO VESPUCCI vinced that they was an Italian who had found a New sailed for Spain World. In 1507, as a navigator. mapmaker Martin Like Columbus Waldseemüller and Cabot, he first proposed that the thought he had New World be reached China. named America in Later, however, honor of Amerigo he became con- the Discoverer. u CHRISTOPHER Ferdinand and r AFTER COLUMBUS was an Queen Isabella Columbus’s voy- entrepreneur as of Spain didn’t age, Spain and well as a sailor. want Portugal Portugal signed He set up his to be the first the Treaty of expedition like a to reach Asia Tordesillas. In business. Portugal by sea. They the treaty, or drew a line from of the line were 1506 the line was was getting closer agreed to sponsor agreement the North to the Portugal’s. All new moved to allow for to sailing around Columbus’s between nations, South Pole. All lands west of it Portugal’s claims Africa. King journey. the countries new lands east were Spain’s. In in Brazil. 1441 1492 1493 1494 1497 1498 Henry the Columbus begins Columbus starts Treaty of John Cabot lands Columbus sets Navigator, prince his first voyage. his second voyage. Tordesillas divides in Canada and sail on his third of Portugal, initi- ownership of claims it for voyage. ates the search for much of the world King Henry VII of a sea route to Asia, between Spain England. prompting explora- and Portugal. tion of the western coast of Africa. exploring_americas_sp3.indd 16 2/6/17 12:13 PM 7 Shift the Perspective! What would you have thought if you were living in the Americas when Europeans first arrived? Would you have welcomed them, or tried to drive them out? How would you have decided? u JOHN CABOT or Cape Breton was an Italian Island in what is l FERDINAND sailor living in now Canada.