4-1.1

It Is Essential For Students To Know:

• Economic factors such as the desire to have the most riches motivated Europeans to explore the world.
• The expansion of international trade was both a cause and a result of the Age of Exploration in which new lands were explored and claimed for the European country that had funded the voyage.
• Merchants brought spices from the Far East to Europe to trade for a profit.
• Other Europeans wanted more goods from the East without the added expense charged by these middle men.
• Because of the leadership of Prince Henry and their geographic location on the Atlantic Ocean, Portugal was the first to seek a water route to Asia.
• Economic competition with Portugal influenced Spain to sponsor Columbus and others who explored the unmapped lands in the New World that were found by Columbus and other explorers.
• Political factors included competition between nation-states to spread Christianity throughout the New World (God), to find as much (Gold) as they could, and lastly to receive the personal and public (Glory) for their discoveries.
• England and other countries in Europe became interested in the New World, especially as the Spanish found gold and silver in South America that made them the most powerful nation in Europe.
• The English monarchs began to send explorers to the New World and in the next few centuries they would become the dominant country in the settlement of North America.
• The technological (ever changing improvements) factors helped the explorers to venture into the unknown without fear of death.
• Advancements in shipbuilding included the construction of the Caravel which was a smaller faster ship with triangular sails that could sail into the wind.
• Many improvements in navigational skills allowed sailors to venture further out to sea.
• The astrolabe, which measures the height of the sun above the horizon, the compass, and the reading of the celestial stars aided sailors in plotting their location and course.
• Cartography, map making skills, helped them to share their knowledge with others and was taught at the Portuguese School of Navigation.

It Is Not Essential For Students To Know:

• It is not essential for students to know the life history of the kings and queens of these countries and how they were related to each other.
• Students do not need to understand about the introduction of gunpowder as a technological advancement in Europe.
• Students do not need to know about the life history of a sailor on a voyage.