European Exploration

Question 1

1450 - 1750

Answer 1

• increase cultural contact (truly global)
• printing press (western Europe)
• fall of Constantinople
• Americas added to global trade network
• right before Industrial revolution (1750)
• right before world revolution

Question 2

European exploration

Answer 2

• rise of western Europe
• international trade becomes fundamental importance
• contact increases
• trade and religion influences important changes
• Americas are part of world trade network

Question 3

first outreach

Answer 3

• knowledge was gained during crusades and form contacts with Mongol empire
• upper class in Europe became use to imports (spices) brought from India and SE Asia
• Arab vessels carried goods to Europe to traders in Italian city-states
• Fall of the Mongol Empire and rise of Ottoman Empire, lack of gold, poor naval technology kept Europeans from expanding

Question 4

new technology

Answer 4

• technological improvements in 15th century changed the equation
• deep-draft, round hull ships
• improved metalwork techniques
• better maps
• compass (from China)

Question 5

Portugal and Span lead

Answer 5

• the first exploration initiative came from Portugal
• Prince Henry the navigator directed explorations
• began search for a route to India in 1434
• traveled down west coast of Africa (Bartholomew Diaz)
• passed Cape of Good Hope in 1488
• vasco da gama reached india in 1497
• 1542 they arrived in Japan and began Catholic missionary activity
• fortresses were established in African and Asian ports

Question 6

northern European expeditions

Answer 6

• all gained government-awarded monopolies of trade in the new regions
• chartered companies acted without much official supervision
• gained great profits and acted like independent political entities
• 1543 French crossed the Atlantic and established settlements in canada
• 1547 the British reach North America
• Dutch after armada split from Catholic Spain, and gain holdings in Americas; control of Indonesia
• Dutch establish colonies in South Africa

Question 7

the Colombian exchange

Answer 7

• in the Americas, Europeans forged new populations from their own peoples and through the importation of African slaves
• new world crops spread rapidly
• corn and the potato became important in Europe
• resulted in a major population increase