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The Great Age of Exploration

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six centuries ago European civilization stood at the threshold of a new era  get out this time most people still new a little of the world beyond their own small community  your matter what is it in Europe a Asia or enough in fact in the 1400 most people still thought the world was flat and understanding of geography Port that the best map of the world is over 1,000 years old having the name not long after the time of Christ but by the end of the 1400s as new ideas to hold knowledge of the world and its people improved rapidly as more and ships set out from European ports to explore unknown regions of the earth during the Great age! girl let us discover why and how this incredible period of History at the start of the 15th century European civilization was still largely feudal based on self patient manners work by landlords who labored in exchange for a share of the crops they raised and the protection offered by their land-owning Lords during medieval times people lived mostly in small communities for there were few large cities and very little however the Black Death a huge outbreak of Bubonic plague which occurred during the 1300 S lights out 25% of the European population and the resulting labor shortage help hasten the decline of feudalism and bring about the rise of a brand new era called the Renaissance  the word renaissance means rebirth and that is sweat it was a time when people began to throw off their old medieval Wings adopting new forms of architecture in art as well as new ways of living based on the rediscovery of the civilizations of ancient Rome and Greece  well the medieval. marked by an inward spiritual Focus the leaders of the Renaissance began to search outboard for their inspiration result there was a burst of interest in geography astronomy Anatomy trade and invented one of the greatest Renaissance inventions was the printing press that used movable type which allowed books to be made cheaply and in large which in turn allowed ideas and information to spread much more rapidly than in the past and during the Renaissance Filippi's things the growth of trade the increased desire to learn more about the Earth new inventions and a more rapid what was information combined to bring about the great age of exploration it should come as no surprise that it was the idea of getting Richard that originally got the Europeans interested in World exploration richer by trading in Asian luxury items such as silk spices jewels and porcelains but in the 15th century there was an obstacle  the fact that it was completely controlled by hostile Muslim nations ruled key lands between Christian the great trading centers of the Far East  betrayed and Asian Goods had long followed very definite rounds go to a exported from the Far East either by Muslim Caravan thousands of miles over land to Mediterranean ports  Horton's Mall classroom ships from India that sailed across the Indian Ocean into the Red Sea from Red Sea ports Asia cuz usually were carried across the desert to the Nile River where they went by ship down the river to the Mediterranean Sea once the it's reach the Mediterranean voice the Muslim Traders would sell them only to Merchants from the Italian city-states of Genoa and Venice of the to Venice was the most powerful for not only did it have the greatest Market Place in the Western World it also had special trading privileges in five important Muslim cities  other European nations have never been successful in changing the strict trading range between the Italians and the Muslims so in the early 1400 Spain and Portugal started to look for ways and buy cast in the Muslim territories so they could trade directly  but it was clear that to do this new sea routes to the Eastwood to be found  however at that time this was a very extreme notion because Portuguese and Spanish ships Venture more than 800 miles from their shoulders and they realized that if they were to find a new sea route to Asia they would how to learn a lot more about navigation the method by which Sailors learn the positions of their ships at sea or they could get hopelessly lost and yet they were completely unfamiliar with astronomy and Mathematics the two crucial Sciences upon which navigation to Penn the fact Europeans of the 15th century knew less about science and geography then did the ancient Romans 1300 years before to overcome these problems this man a Portuguese Prince name Henry the Navigator founded a school of navigation here at Sunrise near the rocky Windswept tip of the European continent where he even built this house for himself in a place near the school where he could study the sea and watch ships passing by Prince Henry gather together experts to teach Portuguese Sea Captain's new methods of seafaring based on science here at his navigation School these experts develop techniques that allowed Sailors to stay on Force by calculating the positions of theirs relative to Heavenly Bodies by using newly invented instruments called the astrolabe and the quadrant o'henry's long-range goal of reaching Asia was made a lot easier because new types of ships called caravels had been recently invented ships that had better Rudders for steering as well as improved sales  the ship scene here looks a lot like early Portuguese caramel it is a copy of the Mayflower the English ship that carried the pilgrims to Massachusetts  and even lower the Mayflower was built 150 years after Prince Henry's death it still had quite a bit in common with the first caravels where at just like the Mayflower the earliest Caravelle sat high in the water were light and fast but we're still wide enough to be able to carry the which amounts of water and food needed for the long months at sea here in Lagos Portugal not far from the navigation School Prince Henry founded shipyards to build new caravels and since much of the money for these ships theme from an ancient organization of Crusaders called a Knights of Christ of which Prince Henry was the leader the sales at the ships usually carry the emblem of the Cross seen here  with these new ships and the well-trained semen coming from the school Prince Henry began a systematic campaign of exploration down the coast of Africa  although his main motive for these Explorations West play the new trade route to Asia he also had a few more immediate goals  first he hoped the chart unknown regions of the rolled Edge bring back detailed information which could be analyzed at his school  second he hope to claim land and establish value you treated me that would increase the wealth and power of His country and third he hoped to bring the Christian religion to people in these new and so he even had daily religious Services held in this church at the navigation School the Portuguese exploration with the west coast of Africa continue throughout the lifetime of Henry the Navigator Leslie move down the the Explorers put up the carb Stone markers like this one showing that Portugal claim these lands by right of discovery but it took until 1487 almost three decades after Prince Henry was laid in his tune before the first Europeans sailing under the command Captain Bartholomew Diaz Portugal finally reached the tip of Africa and another decade passed before the newly discovered valve Cape of Good Hope was used by Vasco de Gama to reach India for he established Portugal's first grade Asian colony one of the most unfortunate consequences of the early Portuguese Explorations was The Rebirth of the slave trade headquarters for located not far from the navigation School  and over the next few centuries the business of buying and selling human beans became one of the main sources of Portugal's wealth in the 1480s over 10 years before the Portuguese reach India Italian names Christopher Columbus had the idea that Asia could be reached by heading east around the tip of Africa but by sailing west all the way around the world in an era when most people thought the Earth was flat this seems like a ridiculous idea but Columbus and educated and experienced Seaman have used the best available information to calculate that only 4000 MI sounds of Ocean between Asia and the west coast of Africa and it was while living at this Monastery in Spain that Columbus was able to convince the Spanish rulers King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella to support but their decision to provide support was made in part because the rumors were feeling extremely good and quite a bit richer because they had just should the Moorish Kingdom of Granada and it's great Fortress called The Alarm Racine here which was the last Muslim stronghold on Spanish soil by the summer of 1492 here in the Muddy Waters at the real team to her three ships Pinta and Santa Maria and at dawn on the 3rd of August Columbus's ships sailed out is this Harbor and what was to become the most famous voyage in history Columbus's voyage let's go smoothly at first for a long the police to that drug scene twice cause damage to one of the ships and the sailors had to wait whole month in the Canary Islands while repairs were made  but on September 6th plumbuses ships finally sailed West into the gold watch  the ship sailed on for over a month but as time went by the crew having seen nothing water for so long began to doubt it would ever see land again  some weird sea monsters to get them While others say that if the world was flat they might say a lot but since I got you 34 days she begged him up. That but you the difficult decision to keep going heading Norma's historical consequences for just two days later I knocked which will land with Ssundee and Columbus was over Joy or he believed he had actually reached Asia  Lil we know that his long journey from Spain and only carried him to the Bahama Islands southeast of present-day Florida but not long after cleaning the island he had discovered for Spain Columbus sailed off to do some more exploring he even sent small boats up some of the rivers searching for the great cities he had heard of  but except for a few native villages Keystone was real name  many years were to pass before the Spanish were to learn that great civilizations existed in this part of the world in fact in modern-day Guatemala this Temple still stands in the ancient Mayan city of Tikal which was abandoned 100 you before Columbus was even born  before returning to Europe in January of 1493 Columbus collected specimens in animal life exotic plants  and even a few native people show the king and queen the nun one of the larger islands he left for teak room and behind to establish Spanish colony it was April before Columbus size of the familiar landscape of Spain again and when he finally reached the Royal Court King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella we're so pleased with what they they decided to set him up with a fleet of 17 ships filled with supplies horses farm animals and 1500 Subs new College  but when Columbus got back to his, he discovered that everyone he left behind I've been killed by the island in Revenge for the cruel treatment they received at the hands of these first  however Columbus started a new colony and then for three years continued his explorations around the Caribbean Sea and it is interesting to note that even though Columbus return to the West Indies two more times when he died in 1506 he always believed that he had exploring Asia light Columbus nearly all the early European Navigators cross the Atlantic thought they were exploring the coastline of Asia an exception was this man Play-Doh Vespucci born here in the great Italian City of Florence beginning in 1499 alarm the coast to the south of the Caribbean Sea did not belong what was part of a previously unknown continent which he called the new world  when he got back to Europe best food took advantage of the new printing presses publishes ideas in fact Amerigo Vespucci became so well-known that many people of that era believed he has been the first European discoveries across the Atlantic  this was why when a German mapmaker created a new map of the world in 1507 the southern continent of America in his honor  as it turns out the first Europeans to reach can you world where the Vikings who around the year 1000 explored and even temporarily settled along what is today the East Coast Kenneth  but during the Great Age of Exploration the first Europeans to reach that part of the world where John Cabot and his son Bastion who in 1497 sailed from England and return the next year sailing down the North American Coast as far as the Chesapeake bicep 19 there were still some people who thought Asia could be reached more quickly by sailing west from Europe and to them the continents of the new world we're often does little more than obstacles in their path  one such man was Ferdinand Magellan who won September 20th 1519 what did the Spanish farmer San lucar de vitamina C here with a fleet of five ships and 241 year later mini strokes Magellan discover the passage around the tip of South America today of The Straits of Magellan  the voyage this passage was extremely too and took 5 weeks but finally they reach the calmer Waters in the vast ocean that Magellan named the which means peaceful  then for over 3 months they son nothing but the Endless Sea the man on the ship because all they had to eat with leather hides wormy biscuits and whatever rats they could catch so with each day Their Fear misery increased  but after sailing thousands of miles west from Cape Coral Magellan's ships reached an island to take on fresh water and food  this amazing first voyage around the world continued for another year but finally ended 1522 when a single ship returned to the harbor at some time after an absence of nearly three years but that ship carry only 17 minutes  because the other 224 original crew members as well as Magellan himself had died but the sailors who survived made history or they had shown that Asia could be reached by sailing west from Europe which more importantly their Voyage prove conclusively that the world is round in 59 the same year that Magellan left for Asia this man sail from Spain with a fleet of 11 ships and 600 men thing to conquer Mexico what the time was ruled by Montezuma II the emperor of the Aztec tribe who is magnificent capital of Tenochtitlan was built where modern day Mexico City now stands this part of Mexico picture of Mexican civilization grew in fact hundreds of years before the Aztecs famous temple seen here when Cortes arrived in Mexico the Aztecs were probably the most advanced civilization in the new world at first welcome to him thinking he was a messenger one of their gone but Cortez and there was little the Aztecs not him  for the Spaniards deadly cannons and guns and they did not they also possess metal armor from Spears and arrows and the Aztecs kerrymen Supply and he did not so with advantages like these and with the help of other tribes who hated the text it took only a few years for Cortez to bring Spanish rule to Mexico and just Ten Years Later in 1531 a similar scene was played out in Peru when the forces of Francisco Pizarro destroy the Magnificent Inca Empire after Peru in Mexico fell to Spain men such as Coronado and DeSoto set off to explore lands that are today part of the Southern United States lands which they claimed for Spain and by the mid-sixteenth century how many parts of the world have been colonized by Spain and Portugal according to the terms of the Treaty of Tordesillas  under this tree loud in 1494 the pope awarded all the newly discovered lands to the west of a certain line to Spain while all those to the east went to Portugal  but these arbitrary restrictions did not sit well with other European nations and starting in the late 18 century they began to found their own colonies and does these Global Empires expanded World exploration gruetter good pace  most European nations grew richer because of the things their colonies produced such as goals Silver Firs sugar or cotton but things changed even more in the places where the colonies were established for as European customs reduced native customs and languages began to disappear here in Mexico for example Temple human sacrifices had been performed each year or torn down and replaced by Churches missionaries arrived in large native people became Christians European tools and inventions were brought to the colonies  and as more and more settlers arrived the native people were sometimes enslaved  but the greatest change was the destruction of up to 80% of the did American population from diseases accidentally carried to the New World by the Europeans great Age of Exploration that began so quietly in Portugal during the early 1400s brought many changes  call Anna Christian caused the huge population show from one side of the Atlantic Ocean to the other and while the Europeans came willingly and quite often. the Africans were forced and usually lived as slaves in extreme poverty but in spite of its tragedies the great Age of Exploration succeeded in increasing our knowledge of geography and communication develop between peoples of the world the previously had not even known of one another's existence  what does more and more ships cross the great oceans the different races called some religions of the world eventually began to share ideas and learn from one another the foundation was laid down modern interdependent World in which we live today trade with place in the 15th century was controlled by Muslim traders who would sell their Asian spices silks jewels and porcelains only two European creators from the city states of and the great Age of Exploration began at a time when Europe was leaving the Medieval Era and entering the historical cultural rebirth called the the country of developed an important school of navigation in the 1400s the Explorer named  was the first European to reach India by sailing around the tip of Africa the development of new ships called helped make World exploration people in the 1400s three important goals of the early explorers were to  and and Columbus skip the lands of lay only about 4000 miles to the west of the western coast of Africa the first Spanish colony in the new world was established by the continents of the new world are named after a merchant Explorer named in the 16th century a man named Spanish conquest of the Aztecs while a man named led the Spanish conquest of the Incas

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The Great Age of Exploration

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