A Time of Change in Europe
A person who buys and sells goods for a living.
What is a merchant?
The book that inspired Europeans to travel after reading about faraway lands.
What is The Travels of Marco Polo?
This navigation tool helped sailors figure out which direction they were going.
What is the compass?
The continents of North and South America were named after this Italian explorer.
Who is Amerigo Vespucci?
Columbus persuaded these two Spanish rulers to fund his voyage across the Atlantic.
Who are King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella?
This famous trade route was named after the most valuable product from China.
What is the Silk Road?
Europeans wanted these items from China and the East Indies.
What are gems, silks, spices, and other valuable goods?
This type of large, strong ship was designed for long ocean voyages.
What is a carrack?
The explorer who was first to record seeing the Pacific Ocean.
Who is Vasco Núñez de Balboa?
Ferdinand and Isabella sponsored Columbus for this reason.
What is to outdo Portugal and find a better route to China and the East Indies?
This movement aimed to stay and improve the Catholic Church as a response to the Protestant Reformation.
What is the Counter-Reformation?
This Spanish goal aimed to recapture land lost to the Moors.
What is the Reconquista?
The astrolabe, sextant, and chronometer all helped sailors determine this.
What is their location at sea?
This was the route Portuguese explorers used to reach China and the East Indies.
What is sailing around the southern tip of Africa and across the Indian Ocean?
Columbus’s three ships were the Niña, the Pinta, and this one.
What is the Santa Maria?
The Ottoman Turks influenced exploration by doing this.
What is blocking most trade routes through the Middle East?
After capturing Constantinople, this empire blocked most European trade routes through the Middle East, leading explorers to seek new routes.
Who were the Ottoman Turks?
This invention helped spread news about explorers’ discoveries and encouraged more exploration.
What is the printing press?
The island where Columbus founded the first Spanish colony in the New World.
What is Hispaniola?