Europe is Ready for Exploration!
- During the late 1400s and early 1500s, Europe experienced change:
- The Renaissance - renewed interest in Classical Greek and Roman heritage
- The Scientific Revolution - encouraged new experimental approach to the acquisition of knowledge about the natural environment
- The Reformation and Catholic Counter-Reformation - religious upheaval which led to religious fervor but also intense religious conflict
- New technologies -
- Portuguese caravel, sailing ship capable of long ocean voyages
- Navigational aides - astrolabe, compass
- THE CRUSADES... reintroduced Europeans to the markets of the East, making demand for spices and other Asian goods increase. European merchants were looking for different routes to Asia.
- Along comes Columbus...
- Portugal
- Prince Henry the Navigator of Portugal
- Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama sails to India, opening direct link between Europe and markets of Asia
- Columbus
- Christopher Columbus = Genoese navigator
- Believed the globe was smaller than actually is
- Went to Portugal for them to sponsor his trip, but they turn him down :(
- SO, Columbus turned to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain, and they provide Columbus with three ships
- Columbus sights land on October 12, 1492
- He hoped to convert native people to Chistianity
- Encomienda system - Native Americans work on Spanish plantations in exchange for Spanish "protection"
- Columbian Exchange - exchange of crops, animals, diseases, and ideas between Europe and colonies of the Western Hemisphere that developed in the aftermath of the voyages of Columbus
- Cortes in Mexico
- 1519 - Hernan Cortes (Spanish Conquistador) led army of 500 men from Cuba to Mexico
- Cortes made his way to the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan, where he was treated as a guest by Aztec ruler, Montezuma
- Cortes overran Tenochtitlan in 1521, destroying Aztec Empire
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