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Western Civilization II Marshall High School Mr. Cline Unit Three AB * The Age of Discovery

• Columbus and Reasons for Exploration

• Like the starter's gun at the Olympics or the checkered flag at the raceway, the voyages of signaled the start of the Age of Exploration.

• He (and his Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria) began the race for the Americas, a contest in which Spain and Portugal ran neck-and-neck toward the first-place prize.

• In today's lesson, we'll discuss these gold-medal contestants while highlighting the famous explorers from both countries.

• Before we begin listing off explorers, let's review what Spain and Portugal hoped to gain through their explorations.

• First and foremost, European countries and monarchs were seeking wealth, while individual explorers were seeking fame and fortune.

• Along with these materialistic motives, Christian Europe desired to bring faith to the lost savages of the new lands. * The Age of Discovery

• Columbus and Reasons for Exploration

• All of these motives are summed up in this great quote by Castillo, a 16th- century explorer.

• When speaking of exploration, he exclaimed: 'To serve God, to give light to those who were in darkness and to grow rich as all men desire to do.'

• With that being said, let's start our roll-call of explorers with the famous Columbus.

• Christopher Columbus, although Italian-born, sailed under the Spanish flag of Ferdinand and Isabella.

• He set sail seeking a faster trade route to India and China.

• Believing that the Earth's circumference was smaller than others estimated, he set out to reach the East by sailing west.

• Unfortunately for this maverick, two things went a bit awry. * The Age of Discovery

• Columbus and Reasons for Exploration

• First, his calculation of the world's size was a bit too small.

• Second, an undiscovered ocean and continent lay in his path.

• Although his journeys never saw him reach India and China, he stumbled upon the Americas, lands rich with open space, new crops, and the chance for gold!

• By the end of his days at sea, Columbus claimed the lands of Cuba, Antigua, Hispaniola (the modern countries of the Dominican Republic and Haiti occupy a half of this island respectively) and for Spain.

• Ironically, we still call these areas the West Indies, playing off Columbus' erroneous belief that he had reached the waters of India.

• South and Central America

• When word got out that there were new lands to be had, the rest of the world joined the race.

• Not wanting to settle for , Portuguese ships headed west. * The Age of Discovery

• South and Central America

• In the year 1500, the Portuguese Pedro Alvares Cabral became the first European to reach Brazil.

• With this, Portugal began establishing a vast and profitable colony that would become larger than Portugal itself.

• Although competition was fierce, Spain kept up its quest for first place.

• In 1513, Spaniard Vasco Nunez de Balboa traveled beyond the Isthmus of Panama, becoming the first European to 'dip his toes in the Pacific Ocean.'

• Not satisfied with just enjoying the waters, he claimed them and all the lands that touched them for his precious Spain.

• In 1519, the Portuguese Ferdinand Magellan began the journey that would take him through the Straits of Cape Horn to the Pacific Ocean and beyond.

• Upon reaching the Pacific, he and his crew continued west to the Philippines where, unfortunately, Magellan died. * The Age of Discovery

• South and Central America

• However, his crew returned to Europe, being the first expedition to circumnavigate the globe, a 'win' Magellan is still credited with to this very day.

• Exploration Turns to Conquest

• Unfortunately, the race for the Americas was also a deadly one.

• Around the year 1520, Hernan Cortes conquered the Aztec Empire of Mexico for Spain.

• Of course, this was a great win for Spain and its economy but was devastating to the native populations.

• In the 1530s, his fellow countryman, Francisco Pizarro, dealt the same fate to the Incas of Peru, scoring another win for Spain.

• With each territory conquered, Spain sent royal representatives to administrate the newly conquered lands. * The Age of Discovery

• Exploration Turns to Conquest

• Cruelty ensued as the Spanish disregarded ancient cultures, forced conversions to Christianity, and gathered gold for the crown.

• Northern America

• With the great wealth amassed in the Southern Americas, sights were set toward the north.

• In this region, it seems Spain took the lead.

• The 1500s saw Francisco Vasquez de Coronado explore into the areas of Arizona and New Mexico, claiming these lands for Spain.

• Cabeza de Vaca joined him by exploring Texas for Mother Spain, while the famous Spaniard Ponce de Leon searched Florida for the fabled Fountain of Youth.

• These explorations culminated in Spain establishing the first North American settlement, St. Augustine in Florida. * The Age of Discovery

• Northern America

• The credit for this feat goes to the Spaniard Pedro Menendez de Aviles, who founded St. Augustine, now in Florida, in the year 1565.

• In time, all of Europe would realize it was not gold that North America offered but a land of moderate climates, rich vegetation, and very fertile ground.

• Mapping the New World

• One Renaissance man willing to foot the bill for excursions into the unknown was Prince Henry of Portugal.

• Henry, known to our world as 'Henry the Navigator,' began the first school of oceanic navigation and also sponsored countless expeditions into the dark seas.

• Although Henry never actually joined any expeditions, he helped to create maps used by later explorers while also whetting the appetite of all of Europe with the spirit of exploration. * The Age of Discovery

• Mapping the New World

• Henry wasn't the only guy playing cartographer, the word for 'mapmaker.'

• When news reached Europe that the Italian navigator and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci had reported the West Indies were not part of Asia but were in fact a new continent, all of Europe was abuzz.

• Since he was the first to label these new lands as continents, his name was applied to them as North America and South America.

• In the early 1500s, King Ferdinand promoted Vespucci to chief navigator of Spain and commissioned him to begin a school of navigation.

• In this position, Vespucci strove to improve standard navigation techniques.

• Being very good at his job, he even developed a fairly primitive but rather accurate method of determining longitude, which advanced European cartography. * The Age of Discovery

• Mapping the New World

• While Vespucci was busy with his projects, others were taking his works to a new level.

• Sometime in the early 1500s, Ringmann and Waldseemuller, two cartographers, produced a new map calling the New World 'America.‘

• On this map, Old World Europe was depicted as most people were accustomed to seeing it; however, the left side of the map now held a strange new continent with the word 'America,' after Amerigo Vespucci, written across it.

• With maps beginning to flow freely, Europeans flocked to the seas, looking for wealth along the trade routes of the New World.

• Seaborne Commerce

• In the early stages of exploration, Spain and Portugal would probably have to share the medal for first place. * The Age of Discovery

• Seaborne Commerce

• Shortly after Columbus's first voyages, trading vessels were racing across the seas.

• Using new and improved maps, these two empires developed a vigorous seaborne trade system.

• During this time, the bulk of Spain's wealth came from gold and silver mined from the Americas.

• However, the Americas also supplied important agricultural products, which helped line the pockets of Spain.

• While Spain increased her trade with the Americas, she also grew her Oriental and Indian trading franchise.

• Oddly, in the first stages of this new seaborne commerce, most of Europe stayed out of Spain and Portugal's way, choosing to cross the Atlantic in the north. * The Age of Discovery

• Seaborne Commerce

• In fact, as early as the 1490s, John Cabot discovered the fish-filled waters off the coast of Newfoundland.

• Early

• However, fish aren't nearly as exciting as gold, and soon the rest of Europe wanted a piece of Spain's actions.

• This brings us to !

• Some of the first acts of piracy during this era were committed by the French against the Spanish in the waters off the Azores, a group of islands off the coast of .

• During these raids, French privateers, which were basically government- sanctioned pirates, boarded and raided Spanish ships carrying wealth and .

• Along with the French, the Dutch got involved with their own breed of privateers, known to history as Sea Beggars. * The Age of Discovery

• Early Privateers

• Although these Dutch pirates were a nuisance to Spain, they were nothing compared to the famous Sea Dogs of , arguably the most skilled pirates of the Age.

• English Sea Dogs

• In the mid-16th century, John Hawkins emerged as the de facto leader of the English Sea Dogs.

• Hawkins spent his time at sea raiding Spanish ships across the while also dabbling in the African slave trade.

• After a close call in which several of his fleet's ships were captured and destroyed, Hawkins pulled back a bit from his pirating, making way for his cousin, Sir , to take the reins as England's premier !

• To the delight of England, Drake was excellent at his job. * The Age of Discovery

• English Sea Dogs

• As a British explorer, slave trader, and privateer, Drake served his country well - so well, in fact, that the Spanish dubbed him El Draque, meaning the Dragon, and King Phillip II of Spain put a bounty on his head equal to the amount of four million dollars.

• While the Spanish may have considered him public enemy number one, he was a hero to his fellow Englishmen, earning himself the position of knight!

• Adding to this prestige, Drake was not only a pirate, he was an excellent navigator.

• He became the second recorded European to circumnavigate the globe. This gives him his place in history right behind Magellan, whose fleet was the first to accomplish this task.

• To Hawkins and Drake we can also add Sir , an explorer, navigator, and British Naval officer. * The Age of Discovery

• English Sea Dogs

• While sailing to Northwest Africa, he also added privateering to his resume, looting French ships for Mother England.

• He also grabbed fame by sailing to North America in search of the Northwest Passage, a legendary sea route across Northern Canada connecting the Atlantic to the Pacific.

• Our last pirate, or to be politically correct, privateer, is Sir .

• History tells us Raleigh was a favorite of Queen Elizabeth. It also tells us he just happened to be handsome and debonair! (This is the guy who reportedly laid down his coat so Elizabeth could walk over a puddle without getting her royal feet dirty.)

• Due to Elizabeth's favor, Raleigh was a very wealthy man, given several political appointments.

• While not flirting with the Queen, he also did some sailing and exploring, establishing the first English colony in America on Roanoke Island. * The Age of Discovery

• English Sea Dogs

• Unfortunately for Raleigh, Queen Elizabeth was the jealous sort.

• When it was discovered he may have a secret girlfriend, Elizabeth gave him the cold shoulder.

• Things got even worse for Raleigh when Elizabeth's successor, James I, took the throne.

• Unfortunately for Raleigh, James was not his biggest fan.

• This may have been putting it a bit mildly, as James had him executed in the year 1618.

• Background of the Conquistadors

• To begin, the Spanish word conquistador means conqueror.

• In order to understand the conquistadors of Spain, we have to take a small step back into Spanish history.