Tools of travel
Portolan charts were first developed in the 1200s in Italy and Spain. These were navigation maps based on sea captins' descriptions of their voyages. Europeans did not learn cartography, the science of map making, until the Renaissance.
Map
Who was Prince Henry the Navigator?
He was the son of the Portuguese king and the map maker
His date of voyage was 1488, he was from Portuguese, he wanted to find a trade route across the water, he was the first to find the Indian ocean from the west, and he had sailed past the cape of hope the southern tip of Africa.
Bartolomeu Dias
His date of voyage was 1492, he was from Spain, he was convinced there was a quicker way to reach India than by sailing all the way around Africa and across the Indian Ocean, he found native inhabitants, he also found gold, exotic birds, spices, and slaves, and he had failed to reach India, but he made landfall in the Caribbean a region in the Americas, which were previously unknown.
Christopher Columbus
In 1519 this man came to the land now known as Mexico, following rumors of gold. As he had marched up the Mexican Gulf Coast, local people told him of a great empire with large quantities of gold. He claimed the area as New Spain, and he and his conquistadores marched inland to Tenochtitlán, the capital of the Aztec Empire. As they traveled, he had received messages from the Aztec king, Montezuma II, both warning him to stay out of Tenochtitlán and offering him payments if he would go away. He had ignored the warnings. He had spent nearly two years plundering the Aztec Empire while the Aztec resisted his rules. In 1521, him and his conquistadores destroyed Tenochtitlán and built on its ruins a capital for New Spain, which they now call Mexico City.
Hernan Cortes
A compass is a navigational tool for finding direction on Earth's surface. The oldest and most common type of compass is the magnetic compass. Magnetic compass work because Earth has magnetic poles that are generally close to the north and south poles.
Compass
Where was he from?
He was from Portuguese
His date of voyage was 1498, he was from Portuguese, he wanted to find a trade route to India, he went across Africa to get India, and he had bought back spices.
Vasco da Gama
His date of voyage was 1513, he was Spanish, he wanted to find the mythical fountain of youth and gold, him and his crew encountered fierce resistance by the natives, and he was the first to explored Florida.
Ponce de Leon
This man had been a part of Balboa’s expedition in 1513 that crossed the Isthmus of Panama to the Pacific Ocean. While on this expedition, he had heard rumors of an empire to the south that had many riches. In the 1520s, he took two expeditions south that led him closer to the Inca Empire, centered in what is now Peru. These expeditions had provided him with proof of the Inca riches, such as turquoise jewelry and sculptures and vases of solid gold. In 1530, he had set out from Panama to attempt his conquest of the Inca. Taking advantage of the civil war, he had moved closer to the heart of the empire. When the conquistadores met up with the Incan emperor Atahualpa, they opened fire, killing thousands of unarmed men and capturing Atahualpa. The Incan emperor tried to buy his freedom by offering vast amounts of gold and silver, but he had his conquistadores kill the Atahualpa anyway. While his conquistadores clashed with Atahualpa, smallpox took its own victims. Estimates suggest that smallpox had killed millions of Incas. He was able to seize control of the capital and the entire Inca Empire. However, in the resistance to Spanish rule continued for another 39 years.
Francisco Pizarro
These are ancient scientific instruments used by astronomers and mariners. They were used as early as the 500s and by about 800 thy had been fully developed in the Islamic Island world. From there the use if this tool spread to Europe. They also became widely used in Europe during the middle ages.
Astrolable
When was he in power?
He was in power in the 1460s.
His date of voyage was 1513, he is Spanish, he wanted to find gold and kidnap slaves, e had found the native Americans, and he lead the expedition across Panama to the pacific ocean, he was also awarded the title of government of Darin.
Vasco Nunez de Balboa
His date of voyage was 1539, he was from Spain, he wanted to find gold and treasure, he was the first European exploration of the Mississippi river and surrounding region, and he had explored and mapped American Southeast.
Hernando de Soto
Other notes
Before the 1700s, the only accurate clocks were pendulum clocks which do not work of they are moving. Both the the sun and water move, sailors at sea could not tell how fast they were traveling in what direction, or how much time had passed. Mapping had been developed over hundreds of years by moorish scholars.
This tool of travel is a tool that allows people to accurately measure the altitude of the sun or a star above the horizon. It is made of an arc that shows angle measurements up to 90 degrees and a movable radius to measure the angle of the sun above the horizon. Beginning around the 1400s sailors used this tool to determine their latitudinal locations when at sea.
Quadrant
What did he do to encourage exploration?
He wanted Europeans sailors to learn new techniques and devolve new tools and instruments.
His date of voyage was in 1497, he was from England, he was convinced that the world was round and that Northwest passage to Asia existed, he had claimed England, and he had continued to navigate the coast line as far south as New England.
John Calbot
His date of voyage was 1519-1521, he from Portuguese and Spain, he had lead for the Spanish government, he began a expedition for Spain to sail around South America to the Indian Ocean, he found a narrow passage between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans in October 1520, and he found a Southwest passage and circled the globe.
Ferdinand Magellan
The Portuguese also adapted a new type of ship for expeditions, the caravel. The caravel had a large keel and three masts with triangular latteen sails other sailing (blank ) at the time had large square sails which were only useful if you wanted to go in the approximate direction the wind was blowing.
Boats
Why did he encourage exploration?
He became a patron or sponsor, of explorations to find a sea route to India.
His date of voyage was 1501, he is from Spain and Portuguese, he wanted to claim a new continent that had been reached, he was a discover of a new continent and named it land "America", and he has became chief navigator and a royal map maker for Spain.
Amerigo Vespucci
His date of voyage was 1607-1611, he was from England and the Netherlands, he wanted to find the Northwest passage to Asia, he had discovered the Hudson bay,river,and strait, and then he explored them.
Henry Hudson