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What four major motivations encouraged Europeans to explore?
Wealth (Gold), fame and power (Glory), religious expansion (God), and curiosity/discovery (Curiosity).
What does “Gold” represent as a motivation for exploration?
Europeans wanted gold, valuable resources, and new trade routes that could make individuals and nations wealthy.
What does “Glory” represent as a motivation for exploration?
Explorers and rulers wanted fame, prestige, territory, power, and greater influence for themselves and their nations.
What does “God” represent as a motivation for exploration?
Europeans wanted to spread Christianity and convert people they encountered to their faith.
What does “Curiosity” represent as a motivation for exploration?
Europeans wanted to discover unknown lands, peoples, products, cultures, and trade routes.
How did Marco Polo influence European exploration?
His accounts of Asia described its wealth, cities, spices, silk, and other wonders, increasing European curiosity and encouraging Europeans to find their own routes to Asia.
What three important technologies helped make the Age of Exploration possible?
The compass, astrolabe, and improved ships such as the caravel.
What did the compass allow sailors to do?
The compass helped sailors determine direction, even when they could not see land or use the sun and stars.
What was the astrolabe used for?
Sailors used the astrolabe to measure the position of the sun or stars and estimate their latitude.
What was the caravel?
A small, light, fast, and maneuverable sailing ship developed by the Portuguese and used extensively for exploration.
Why were European nations competing to explore the world?
They wanted access to Asian trade, valuable resources, territory, wealth, influence, and national glory.
What was Portugal's main goal during the early Age of Exploration?
Portugal wanted to find a sea route around Africa to reach the wealthy markets of Asia.
Who was Henry the Navigator?
Henry was a Portuguese patron of exploration who supported sailors, mapmakers, astronomers, and navigators and encouraged Portuguese exploration.
What did Bartolomeu Dias accomplish?
in 1488, Dias became the first European to sail around the southern tip of Africa, proving that a sea route to the Indian Ocean was possible.
What did Vasco da Gama accomplish?
In 1497, Vasco da Gama sailed around Africa and reached Calicut, India, establishing a direct Portuguese sea route to Asia.
What is the simple sequence for remembering Portugal's three important figures?
Henry created the vision → Dias proved the route → da Gama completed the journey.
What was Christopher Columbus trying to accomplish in 1492?
Columbus was trying to reach Asia by sailing west across the Atlantic.
What happened when Columbus reached the Caribbean?
Columbus encountered lands unknown to Europeans at the time. He mistakenly believed he had reached islands near Asia.
Why was Columbus's voyage historically important?
His voyages opened sustained European contact with the Americas and began a new era of exploration, competition, colonization, and global exchange.
What did Amerigo Vespucci realize?
Vespucci recognized that the lands Columbus encountered were not part of Asia but a previously unknown landmass to Europeans.
How did the Americas get their name?
Mapmakers used a Latinized form of Amerigo Vespucci's name, Americus, to name the continents America.
What did John Cabot accomplish?
In 1497, Cabot sailed west from England and reached the Atlantic coast of what is now Canada. His voyage gave England a claim in North America and encouraged further exploration.
What did Sir Francis Drake accomplish?
Drake sailed around the world and became the second person known to circumnavigate the globe.
What was France searching for during the Age of Exploration?
France searched for a Northwest Passage, a water route through or around North America to Asia.
What did Jacques Cartier accomplish?
Cartier explored the region around Newfoundland and the Gulf and St. Lawrence River. His voyages helped France establish claims in North America and laid the groundwork for New France.
Did slavery exist before European colonization of the Americas?
Slavery existed in parts of Africa, Europe, and the Middle East before European colonization of the Americas.
How did some people become enslaved in West Africa before the Atlantic Slave Trade?
Some people were enslaved through warfare, punishment, or debt.
How was slavery in West Africa different from the racial plantation slavery that later developed in the Americas?
Earlier systems were not identical to the racial, hereditary, plantation-based system that developed in the Americas.
How did European expansion contribute to the development of the Atlantic Slave Trade?
Europeans established trading connections along the West African coast, transported enslaved Africans to Atlantic islands and plantations, and eventually expanded the system throughout the Atlantic world.
Why did European colonizers increasingly turn to enslaved African labor in the Americas?
Plantations created enormous demand for labor, while Indigenous populations declined dramatically because of disease, warfare, and harsh working conditions.
What three factors combined to create the Atlantic Slave Trade?
Existing systems of slavery + European expansion + demand for plantation labor.
What was the Triangular Trade?
It was a system of Atlantic trade connecting Europe, Africa, and the Americas through the movement of goods, enslaved people, and plantation products.
What was transported from Europe to Africa?
Manufactured goods such as textiles, clothing, metal goods, weapons, alcohol, and other trade goods.
What was transported from Africa to the Americas?
Enslaved Africans were forcibly transported across the Atlantic.
What was transported from the Americas to Europe?
Plantation products such as sugar, tobacco, cotton, coffee, and other valuable goods.
What was the Middle Passage?
Captives were held in extremely crowded conditions, and food, water, sanitation, and medical care were often inadequate. Disease and malnutrition caused many deaths.
How were enslaved people legally treated under slave codes and colonial laws?
They were legally treated as property and could be bought, sold, inherited, or transferred.
What basic rights were commonly denied to enslaved people?
They were commonly denied freedom of movement, the right to own property, the right to choose an employer, access to education, legal protection for families, and the right to participate in government.
Why did slavery expand economically?
European demand for profitable crops such as sugar, tobacco, rice, and later cotton created a huge demand for plantation labor. Plantation owners and merchants could make profits from the production and trade of these crops.
What is the African Diaspora?
The African Diaspora refers to the forced movement of African people to the Americas and other parts of the world. Africans and their descendants preserved and developed traditions in music, language, food, storytelling, religion, art, and family life.
What was the Columbian Exchange?
The Columbian Exchange was the widespread exchange of plants, animals, people, diseases, and goods between the Americas and Europe, Africa, and Asia following Columbus's voyages.