Age of Exploration

Voyages

Henry the Navigator, 1420-60

Columbus, 1492-3

Vasco da Gama, 1498-9

Means: new technology

Compass (Chinese)

Astrolabe (Greek/Muslim)

Caravel (Muslim)

Rudder (Chinese)

Cannon (Chinese)

Motives: ?

Spanish Conquests in the Americas

*Conquistadors ("conquerors")

*Aztecs (Mexico), 1519

Hernando Cortes (1485-1547)

New Spain

Incas (S. America), 1532-

Francisco Pizarro (ca. 1478-1541)

Study Questions: Reading

The World that Trade Created, pp. 16-8, 53-5

1. What was the impact of the Portuguese on Indian Ocean trade in the 16th century?

2. Why was Columbus luckier than he was smart?

The Human Record, pp.44-6, 65-70

1. What does this source reveal about the motives for the Spanish conquests of the Aztecs?

2. Why did the Spanish win the war against the Aztecs?

 

 

The Earth and Its People's, pp. 418, 424-39

1. Why did Spain and Portugal send explorers to Africa, Asia and the Americas? What technologies made this possible?

2. Why did the Spanish and Portuguese succeed in conquering the people of the Americas but not Asia and Africa?