Blue Highlight: Vocab word

Green Highlight: Definition

Pink Highlight: Name (person)

Orange Highlight: Information about that person

Purple Highlight: Name (not person)

Yellow Highlight: Information about that thing

Bold: Important information

WH1 Topic 17 #1 Study Guide

Quizlet

Important Names (people):

Marco Polo: A European explorer in the 1200s who traveled from Venice to China to visit the court of Kublai Khan, and wrote a book about his experiences (The Travels).

Hernán Cortés: Spanish conqueror of Mexico, believed that the people must make sure that indigenous people were inducted into Catholicism. Conquered Tenochtitlán and killed Montezuma II.

Prince Henry the Navigator: Sponsored Portuguese fleets. Bartholomeu Dias was a sailor who reached the Cape of Good Hope, and returned.

Vasco da Gama: Went around Africa, then cut across the Indian Ocean to get to the coast of India. In may 1498, he arrived at Calicut. He got rich from selling Indian spices.

Christopher Columbus: “Discovered” the Americas, was sponsored by Queen Isabella of Spain.

Queen Isabella of Spain: Funded Columbus’ expedition

Ferdinand Magellan: In 1519, he sailed from Spain to find a sea passage through the Americas. He passed through the Strait of Magellan, by the tip of South America, to the pacific ocean. However, Indigenous people killed him in the Philippines and only one of his ships returned to Spain.

John Cabot: A Venetian seaman who explored the New England coastline with England in 1497.

Amerigo Vespucci: A Florentine, sailed on several voyages to the Americas. America was named after him and his letters.

Montezuma II / Moctezuma II: 1510, he was the Aztec ruler. The Spanish took him hostage.

Francisco Pizarro: (1531) Landed on the Pacific coast of South America with 180 men, brought new weapons to the Inca, brought smallpox, used the civil war to his advantage to take over Atahuallpa.

Samuel de Champlain: Founded Quebec

Names (other):

The Travels: A book Marco Polo wrote about his journey.

Treaty of Tordesillas: Created a boundary line going North to South through the Atlantic Ocean and the east part of South America. Portugal got the East, Spain got the West.

Cape of Good Hope: The southern tip of Africa.

Melaka: A thriving spice trade port on the Malay Peninsula

Tenochtitlán: The Aztec capital, which was located in what is now Mexico City. Hernán Cortés conquered it.

Veracruz: Where Cortes landed, on the Gulf of Mexico.

Cuzco: The Inca capital.

Moluccas: Known as Spice Islands

Tlaxcala: An Aztec city-state, Cortes’ most important alliance.

Lima: The place where Pizarro established his new capital in Inca.

New Netherland: The Dutch’s settlement in America. It extended from the southern coast of New York to present-day Albany, in the North-West.

Quebec: The first permanent French settlement in the Americas.

Vocab:

Overseas: Beyond or across the sea

Caravel: A boat that was an improvement over Galleons, that was lighter, faster, and had a shallower bottom, giving it the ability to travel closer to shore.

Lateen: Triangular

Cartography: The art and science of mapmaking

Astrolabe: Ancient GPS, determined one’s line of latitude and if you were north or south of the equator. Only worked with sun/moon light.

Gyres: Spiraling currents

Trade winds: Winds blowing South or West in the North Atlantic

Westerlies: Winds blowing West -> East

Conquistadors: Spanish conquerors of the Americas

Colony: A settlement of people living in a new territory, linked with the parent country by trade and direct government control

Assimilation: When a minority group is forced to adopt the ways of the majority group

Motives and Means

• Between 1500 and 1800, Europeans began to explore the world outside of Europe.
• First Portugal and Spain, then later the Netherlands, England, and France improved their economies by trading.
• Near the end of the 1400s, they set out on a series of overseas voyages.

  • Marco Polo

  • European explorer in the 1200s
  • Traveled with his father and uncle from Venice to China to visit the court of Kublai Khan.
  • Wrote a book about his journey, The Travels.
  • People read the book and were fascinated by the East.
  • In 1300s, Ottoman Turks blocked the path of Westerners going East by land.
  • As a result, people began to travel to Asia by sea.
  • People wanted to cut out the Arab middlemen
  • Spices were desired to flavor and preserve food. Precious metals were also sought after.
  • Key motives for European expansion were “Gold, glory, and God”.
  • Spanish conqueror of Mexico, Hernán Cortés, among many others, believed that the people must make sure that indigenous people were inducted into Catholicism.
  • People also wanted glory and adventure.
  • The Portuguese invented the caravel, a ship that was lighter and faster than previous ships. It had lateen (triangular) sails, based off of Arab designs, letting it sail against the wind.
  • Large cargo hold let it transport goods better
  • Made long exploration voyages possible
  • Lowered the cost of transport
  • Advances in cartography, the art and science of mapmaking, gave European explorers more accurate maps.
  • The astrolabe, created by Greek astronomers, let explorers plot their latitude with the sun or stars. The magnetic compass also helped.
  • Better knowledge of Atlantic Ocean wind patterns also aided explorers.
  • The Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans have spiraling currents / gyres resulting from global winds and other forces.
  • Winds blowing South or West in the North Atlantic, called trade winds, and winds blowing West -> East, called westerlies, were utilized for trading.
  • 1400s: Portuguese ships took the exploring lead by sailing southward along the West African coast.

Prince Henry's Navigation School

• In Portugal
• Trained explorers
• Taught:
• Using maps and charting courses
• Ship repair
• Calculating wind currents

Portuguese Explorers

• Beginning in 1420, Prince Henry the Navigator sponsored Portuguese fleets as they sailed southward along the Western coast of Africa.
• There, they discovered gold, and nicknamed the southern coast of Africa the Gold Coast.
• Portuguese captains heard of a route to India around the southern tip of Africa.
• In 1488, Bartholomeu Dias reached the tip, later called the Cape of Good Hope, and returned.
• Next, Vasco da Gama went around Africa, then cut across the Indian Ocean to get to the coast of India. In may 1498, he arrived at Calicut.
• After returning to Portugal, he made a great profit from the spices he obtained in India.
• Portuguese fleets returned to take control of the spice trade from te Muslims.
• Portuguese Admiral Afonso de Albuquerque established a port at Goa, India.
• Later, he sailed into and took over Melaka.
• Melaka: A thriving spice trade port on the Malay Peninsula (southern Asia)
• Taking over Melaka eliminated Arab control of the spice trade
• & also gained a stopping place on the way to the Moluccas (known as Spice Islands)
• A Portuguese treaty with the Moluccan ruler gave Portugal control of the spice trade.
• They had a few trading posts on the coasts of India and China
• (Not enough resources to colonize them)

Spanish Explorers

• Europeans knew the world was round but had the wrong formula for its circumference
• They didn’t know how big Asia was, or that the Americas were in between Asia and Europe to the West
• While The Portuguese sailed South along Africa then East through the Indian Ocean the Spanish sailed West across the Atlantic to get to Asia

• Christopher Columbus

• He thought he could reach Asia by sailing West rather than East around Africa. He convinced Queen Isabella of Spain to pay for an exploratory expedition.
• In October 1492 he reached the Americas, specifically Cuba and Hispaniola (1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue)
• He thought he had reached Asia. After three voyages, he hadn’t found a way through the islands to the American mainland.
• In his four voyages, Columbus reached all the major Caribbean islands and Honduras in Central America, which he called the Indies.

• Ferdinand Magellan

• In September 1519, he sailed from Spain to find a sea passage through the Americas.
• In October 1520, he passed through a waterway by the tip of South America (Strait of Magellan) to the Pacific Ocean.
• Indigenous people killed him in the Philippines.
• Although only one of his ships returned to Spain, he is considered the first person to sail around the globe.

New Lands to Explore

• Spain and Portugal were both scared the other would call first dibs on the new territories.
• This resulted in the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494), which created a boundary line going North to South through the Atlantic Ocean and the east part of South America.
• Portugal got the East, Spain got the West.Soon, the other countries joined the race for the Americas.
• John Cabot was a Venetian seaman who explored the New England coastline with England in 1497.
• Pedro Cabal was a Portuguese captain who landed in South America in 1500, laying Portuguese claim to the Brazil area.
• Amerigo Vespucci, who was from Florence, sailed on several voyages to the Americas. America was named after him and his letters.
• Conquistadors, spanish conquerors of the Americas, were a successful crew thanks to their weapons, organization, and determination.
• The Spanish managed to establish an overseas empire stronger than Portuguese trading posts.

Conquest of the Aztec

Conquest of the Inca

European Rivals