Explorers
He was the Italian navigator backed by Spain in 1492, hoping to find a westward route to Asia.
Who is Christopher Columbus?
This instrument was used to measure latitude using the stars.
What is the astrolabe?
This was the first permanent English settlement in North America, founded in 1607.
What is Jamestown?
This trade route connected Europe, Africa, and the Americas.
What is the Triangular Trade?
These were the three main motivations for European explorers, often called the “3 G’s.”
What are God, Glory, and Gold?
This Portuguese sailor rounded the southern tip of Africa in 1488, proving a sea route to Asia was possible.
Who is Bartholomeu Dias?
This instrument shows direction relative to north, south, east, and west.
What is the compass?
This conquistador conquered the Aztec Empire, leading to Spanish rule in Mexico.
Who is Hernan Cortes?
The middle leg of the Triangular Trade carried enslaved Africans to the Americas.
What is the Middle Passage?
European nations wanted to find new trade routes to Asia to gain access to these valuable goods.
What are spices, silk, and porcelain?
This explorer’s crew was the first to successfully circumnavigate the globe.
Who is Ferdinand Magellan?
Prince Henry of Portugal earned this title because he created a school for sailors and mapmakers.
Who is Prince Henry the Navigator?
This conquistador conquered the Incan Empire in Peru and founded Lima.
Who is Francisco Pizarro?
This economic policy measured a nation’s wealth by its stockpile of gold and silver.
What is mercantilism?
The Age of Exploration brought devastating consequences for Native populations, primarily through this.
What are diseases?
This Italian suggested Columbus had discovered a “New World” and inspired the name “America.”
Who is Amerigo Vespucci?
Triangle-shaped sails allowed ships to sail effectively against the wind. What were they called?
What are lateen sails?
This imaginary line, drawn by the pope in 1493, divided the world between Spain and Portugal.
What is the Line of Demarcation?
This system granted Spanish colonists land and labor from Native Americans.
What is the encomienda system?
The demand for this type of labor drove the growth of the Atlantic slave trade.
What is agricultural labor (plantation work)?
This English explorer discovered the Hudson River while searching for a northwest passage.
Who is Henry Hudson?
This ship innovation, attached to the stern, allowed sailors to steer with more control.
What is the rudder?
He was the Christian king of Kongo who opposed the slave trade but could do little to stop it.
Who is Alfonso I?
This trading company, founded in 1602, held a monopoly on Dutch spice trade.
What is the Dutch East India Company?
This economic system of the 1600s emphasized national wealth through colonies, trade control, and accumulation of bullion.
What is mercantilism?