Age Of Exploration

Quadrant

A Quadrant is a sector equal to one quarter of a circle or have a semicircle. It is also a sector of a two-dimensional cartesian coordinate system.

Cartography

Cartography is the science or practice of drawing maps. By the end of the 15th century, cartographers had developed maps to the point that Europeans possessed fairly accurate maps of the known world.

Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus lived from (1451-1506). His goal was to sail across the Atlantic and reach the other side of Asia through this voyage. He was funded by Queen Isabella of Spain to finance his exploration. He reached what he thought was Asia in 1492, when in reality it was the Bahamas. He died believing he had reached Asia.

Pole Star

A pole star is a visible star, preferably a prominent one, that is approximately aligned with the Earth's axis of rotation; that is, a star whose apparent position is close to one of the celestial poles, and which lies approximately directly overhead when viewed from the Earth's North Pole or South Pole. Sailors did not use this during the during the Age of Exploration.

Amerigo Vespucci

Amerigo Vespucci was an Italian explorer, financier, navigator and cartographer who first demonstrated that Brazil and the West Indies did not represent Asia's eastern outskirts as initially conjectured from Columbus' voyages, but instead constituted an entirely separate landmass, referred to as the New World, this second super continent came to be termed, "America" deriving its name from Americus, the Latin version of Vespucci's first name.

Astrolabe

Astrolabe an instrument formerly used to make astronomical measurements, typically of the altitudes of celestial bodies, and in navigation for calculating latitude, before the development of the sextant. This instrument allowed the Europeans to explore the high seas with confidence.

Axial or stern-post rudder

Axial or stern-post rudder was an import from China. This is the primary control surface used to steer a ship, boat, submarine, hovercraft, aircraft or other conveyance that moves through a fluid medium. Without this they couldnt have constructed ships mobile enough to sail against the wind and engage in naval warfare.

Bartholomeu Dias

Bartholomeu Dias was a nobleman of the Portuguese royal household, was a Portuguese explorer. He sailed around the southernmost tip of Africa in 1488, reaching the Indian Ocean from the Atlantic, the first European known to have done so. He lived form (1450-1500).

Bartolome de Las casas

Bartolome de Las Casas was a Dominican friar who supported the Native Americans, due to the large response from Europeans the government abolished the encomienda system and provided more protection for the Natives. But he advocated that the Africans should be used as slaves instead.

Conquistadors

Conquistador is a tern used to refer to the soldiers and explorers of the Spanish Empire or the Portuguese Empire in a general sense. The conquistadors sailed beyond Europe to the Americas, Oceania, Africa and Asia, conquering territory and opening trade routes. They colonized much of the world for Spain and Portugal in the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries.

North American European Colonies

Despite the fact that the Spain had claimed North America, the British said, "prescription without possession availeth nothing" British North America came to consist of 13 colonies

Disease

Disease is one of the main causes for the success of the Europeans domination in the Americas. They virtually wiped out the Natives in all of South America simply because their immune systems could not handle diseases that the Europeans had brought over.

Columbian Exchange

Exchange between the Americas and Europe of goods, disease and animals.

Ferdinand Magellan

Ferdinand Magellan lived from (1480-1521). He was a Portuguese explorer who organised the Spanish expedition to the East Indies from 1519 to 1522, resulting in the first circumnavigation of the Earth.

John Cabot

John Cabot was an Italian navigator and explorer whose discovery of parts of North America under the commission of Henry VII of England is commonly held to have been the first European exploration of the mainland of North America since the Vikings' vists to Vinland.

Effects of Slave Trade

One effect of the slave trade was the depopulization of areas and deprived African communities of their youngest and strongest men and women. Politically in Europe the effects of the slave trade was also war with African countries. The society of friends (Quakers) began to criticize slavery

Pedro Cabral

Pedro Cabral was a Portuguese nobleman, military commander, navigator and explorer regarded as the discoverer of Brazil. Cabral conducted the first substantial exploration of the northeast coast of South America and claimed it for Portugal.

Major European rivalries

Portugal rivaled against Spain and the Dutch along with the English. The European rivalries cause war and instability throughout other continents with civil wars starting in many Asian and South American countries.

Prince Henry the Navigator

Prince Henry the Navigator of Portugal was highly motivated to spread religion to the new land. Many scholars think this was the secondary motive after economic motive, but many also feel that this was very important to the Europeans, especially Prince Henry who wanted to "bring all the souls that should be saved to Jesus Christ".

Origins of slave trade

Slavery had been practiced Africa since ancient times. In the 15th century it continued at a steady pace. Primary market was in Middle East were most were used as domestic servants. Europeans also had many Africans. Portuguese replaced European Slaves with African ones. 1,000 slaves taken to Portugal a year. 1490's when Europeans needed help with sugar plantations the "need" for slaves grew drastically.

Catholic Church Success and Failures

Social structure divided and Catholic Church unified churches and missions built. Missionaries destroyed native religious beliefs, temples, statues, and sacred pbjects- evil. The church absorbed some Indian customs too.

Joint-Stock Company

The Joint- Stock company was a new form of commercial organization. This was were individuals bought shares in a company and received dividends on their investment while a board of directors ran the company and made the important business decisions

Lateen Rig

The Lateen Rig is a triangular sail set on a long yard mounted at an angle on the mast, and running in a fore and aft direction. In Europe they learned to combine the use of lateen sails with a square rig.

Mercator Projection

The Mercator Projection is a cylindrical map projection presented by the Flemish geographer and cartographer Gerardus Mercator in 1569. It became the standard map projection fro nautical purposes because of its ability to represent lines of constant course, known as rhumb lines. The closer to the equator the closer it was to perfection.

Dutch vs. Portuguese

The Portuguese built forts on western and eastern coasts of Africa and tried to dominate the trade in gold. Dutch came in and seized many Portuguese forts along the West African coast and took control of the Portuguese trade across the Indian ocean

Price Revolution

The Price Revolution was escentially inflation that caused a lot of major economic problems in the 16th and 17th centuries. It was a European wide phenomenon. Wages failed to keep up with price increases, they saw their standard of living drop

Treaty of Tordesillas, 1494

The Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494 divided the newly discovered lands oustide Europe between Portugal and the crown of Castile demarcated about halfway between the Cape Verde islands and the islands entered by Christopher Columbus. The lands to the east would belong to Portugal and the lands to the west to Castile. The treaty was signed by Spain and Portugal.

Compass

The compass is an instrument used for navigation and orientation that shows direction relative to the geographic cardinal directions, or "points". Without the assistance of this new navigational aid explores would not have been able to explore the high seas with as much confidence and certainty.

Middle Passage

The journey of slaves from Africa to the Americas became known as the Middle Passage, the middle leg of the triangular trade route.

Mercantilism

The name historians use to identify a set of economic tendencies that came to dominate economic practices in the 17th century. According to the mercantilists, the prosperity of a nation depends on the amount of gold and silver.

Portolani

The portolani is a descriptive atlas of the Middle Ages, giving sailing directions and providing charts showing rhumb lines and the location of ports and various coastal features. The only problem with this is that it was made on a flat scale and took no account of the curvature of the earth, they were of little use for longer overseas voyages.

Triangular Trade

The trade in slaves grew dramatically and eventually became a piece of the triangular trade connecting Europe, Africa, and the American continents that characterized the new Atlantic economy. European merchant ships carried their manufactured goods to Africa were they were traded for a cargo of slaves. The slaves were then shipped to the Americas and sold.

God, Glory, & Gold

These three pieces: god, glory, and gold are the leading motives to make the voyages to this new land. God was important to the Europeans, they felt a sense of religious motives to spread their beliefs. They wanted the glory and fame of being the most powerful country. And they craved money and gold to assist in gaining economic wealth.

Encomienda system

This system permitted the conquering Spaniards to collect tribute from the natives and use them as laborers. In turn the holders of an encomienda were supposed to protect the Indians, pay them wages, and supervise their spiritual needs. Of course, the Spaniards did none of what they promised to the people.

Vasco Nunez de Balboa

Vasco Nunez de Balboa lived from (1475-1519). He was a Spanish explorer, governor, and conquistador. He is best known for having crossed the Isthmus of Panama to the Pacific Ocean in 1513, becoming the first European to lead an expedition to have seen or reached the Pacific from the New World.

Vasco de Gama

Vasco da Gama was a Portuguese explorer. He was the first European to reach India by sea, linking Europe and Asia for the first time by ocean route, as well as the Atlantic and the Indian oceans entirely and definitively, and in this way the West and the Orient. This was accomplished on his first voyage to India (1497-1499).

Pizarro vs. Incas

When Pizarro came to the Incan Empire in 1530 the emperor died of smallpox's (brought by Europeans). Two of the emperors sons took the throne leading to a civil war. Pizarro took advantage of the instability of the empire and charged through with horses, guns, and other weapons the Incans had never seen before. Pizarro took hold of the capital and started a new Spanish colony.

Aztec vx. Cortes

When the Spanish first came to the Americas they were treated as if they were gods. Cortes soon dominated this region by capturing Moctezuma hostage and pillaged the city, the Spanish were driven out of the city, but soon germs played there part and the Cortes were able to take over the land by 1550.