European Expansion
How did the desire and means to explore foster an expansionist worldview?
Exploration Begins
Expansionism - the actions and attitudes of a state or country whose goal is to increase its power and territory.
circumnavigate - sail completely around the world
mutiny - an outbreak against authority.
Looking at the above map, what do you notice about the locations that each explorer began in?
How might competition among the various countries have affected their exploration decisions?
Going East
In search of gold-producing countries, Prince Henry sent ships towards the west coast of Africa. Over time, the ships moved further south and established trading posts along the coast, thus increasing the number of ships transporting goods between Africa and Portugal.
Once sugar plantations had been established on islands found in the Atlantic Ocean, the Portuguese became involved in the slavery by, bringing these Africans to work on the European owned plantations.
Read the italicized paragraph on page 121, mid page.
Being a smart negotiator, Prince Henry found ways to explore Africa while establishing trade relations with the Indigenous people. The Prince hired local interpreters to assist while exploring and to attain reliable information.
The first Portuguese to explore around the Cape of Good Hope was Bartolomeu Dias. Unfortunately, his crew mutinied and Dias was unable to travel to India. Once Columbus crossed the atlantic Ocean, for the Spanish, the Portuguese felt the pressure to explore and in a few years, Vasco de Gama sailed around Africa and into the Indian Ocean. This victory led the Portuguese to Calicut and opened the sea routes to bring cargo ships full of the much sought after spices. This made Portugal the most powerful trading country of Europe during the 1500's.
Going West
Although Portugal had found a route to the east, Christopher Columbus concentrated on the route he felt was shorter by crossing the Atlantic. After four voyages to the Caribbean, Columbus (still convinced that he had reached Asia) died without the wealth he sought, in 1506.
Continuing for the western sea route, Ferdinand Magellan sailed across the Atlantic, along the coast of South America and into the Pacific Ocean, eventually landing in the Philippines.
After getting involved in a local war, Magellan died, but his ship continued to Spain with the spices and the titled of the first voyage to circumnavigate the world.
Expansion Begins
Before leaving Spain, in 1492, Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand drew up the agreement: "The Article of Agreement between the Lords the Catholic Sovereigns and Cristobal Colon."
Chapter 5 Final Assignment
This assignment can be found in Workspace
The Space Race
Read page 123 - Fast Forward: Humans in Space. Respond to questions 1, 2 and 3
Motivation to Explore
To start, make brief notes under each of the following categories, to identify some of the main reasons why Europeans began to set out to find and eventually take over other lands.
Now pretend that you are Ferdinand Magellan, trying to find crews for your ships to circumnavigate the world for the first time. Write a job advertisement for sailors for your voyage, emphasizing the sorts of motives and ideas that Magellan, in your opinion, would probably have stressed at the time.
5.2: The Means to Explore