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Unit 4: Exploration

Instructional Videos

Targets

  • I can explain the political and economic motivations behind exploration.  

  • I can trace the routes explorers used in an effort to reach Asia. 

  • I can illustrate the expansion of European empires during the Age of Exploration by identifying the lands they dominated. 

  •  I can explain the short and long term effects of European interaction and exploitation of non-European peoples during the Age of Exploration. 

Unit Overview

The Age of Exploration is one of the most controversial time periods in all history but the impact it had on the world is undeniable. This unit explores how two worlds became one. When Christopher Columbus crossed the Atlantic Ocean, he was not the first person from the Eastern Hemisphere to do so, he did not discover land that was already inhabited but he did set off a chain of events that changed the geopolitical landscape for all time. As Europeans followed and settled in the "New World" they began an exchange of culture, economics, and politics that continues to this day. 

Need to Know 

People 

  • Prince Henry the Navigator

  • Vasco de Gama

  • Christopher Columbus

  • Hernan Cortez

  • Francisco Pizarro

  • Ferdinand Magellan

  • Francis Drake 

  • Jacques Cartier

Places

  • Portugal 

  • Mexico

  • Brazil 

  • Peru

​

Events 

  • Columbian Expedition (1492)

Ideas

  • Columbian Exchange

  • Triangular Trade

  • Conversion

  • Race Based Slavery

Miscellaneous

  • Cash crops

  • Precious metals

  • Disease

  • Finished products

  • Raw Materials 

NearPod Codes

TDCFS

Review Activities

From the State

Factors contributing to the European discovery of lands in the Western Hemisphere

  • Demand for gold, spices, and natural resources in Europe

  • Support for the diffusion of Christianity

  • Political and economic competition between European empires

  • Innovations of European and Islamic origins in navigational arts

  • Pioneering role of Prince Henry the Navigator

Establishment of overseas empires and decimation of indigenous populations

  • Portugal: Vasco da Gama

  • Spain: Christopher Columbus, Hernando Cortez, Francisco Pizarro, Ferdinand Magellan

  • England: Francis Drake

  • France: Jacques Cartier

Americas

  • Expansion of the Spanish Empire into South and Central America

  • Expansion of the British Empire into North America

  • Expansion of the Portuguese Empire into South America

  • Expansion of the French Empire into North America

Africa

  • Expansion of trade between Europe and Africa (gold, slaves, and other resources)

  • European trading posts along the coast

Asia

  • Colonization by small groups of merchants (India, the Indies, China)

  • Establishment of trading companies (Portuguese, Dutch, British)

​Americas

  • European emigration to North and South America

  • Demise of Aztec and Incan Empires

  • Forced migration of Africans who had been enslaved

  • Colonies’ imitation of the cultural and social patterns of their parent countries

  • Influence of Catholic and Protestant colonists who carried their faith, language, and cultures to new lands

  • Religious conversion of indigenous peoples

Africa

  • Expansion of the slave trade

  • Introduction of firearms to African society

  • Destruction of families as a result of the slave trade

  • Loss of the fittest members of society to the slave trade

Asia

  • European influence was not welcomed

  • Conflict over attempts to spread Christianity

  • Restrictions on European trade and cultural influence

Columbian Exchange

  • Western Hemisphere agricultural products, such as corn, potatoes, and tobacco, changed European lifestyles.

  • European horses and cattle changed the lifestyles of American Indians.

  • European diseases, such as smallpox, killed more than half of American Indians.

Impact of the Columbian Exchange

  • Shortage of labor to grow cash crops led to the use of African slaves.

  • Slavery was based on race.

  • The European plantation system in the Caribbean and the Americas destroyed indigenous economics and damaged the environment.

Export of precious metals

  • Gold and silver exported to Europe and Asia

  • Impact on indigenous empires of the Americas

  • Impact on Spain and international trade

Triangular trade

  • Linked Europe, Africa, and the Americas

  • Slaves, sugar, and rum were traded

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