The Age Of Exploration And Discovery
The Age Of Exploration And Discovery
415-1603
By: Savio Moniz 2E
Part 1
Within a period of less than 300 years, from about 1415 - 1603, European explorers discovered that all the seas of the world formed one continuous ocean, a fact that encouraged them, with the help of Prince Henry the Navigator, to undertake voyages into previously uncharted areas. They found new lands and opened up new trade routes, colonies and settlements were established in many parts of the world. The patronage of Prince Henry (1394 - 1460) encouraged Portuguese explorers to make numerous voyages of discovery along the western coast of Africa during the 1400s. Strange products and great wealth were brought back to Europe. Nations became powerful through their acquisition of overseas territories and, consequently, fought each other for supremacy over them.
For thousands of years, people knew very little about their world. The peoples of the Americas did not know that there were other lands - Europe, Asia and Africa - where other people lived. In the same way, the peoples of Europe had no idea that America existed. Between 1492 and 1522, the Spanish sent out a series of voyagers across the seas which brought the two worlds together for the first time. The sailors were not looking for America, but Asia. At first, they did not realise what they had found - they thought that America was part of Asia. When they realised that America was a continent, like Europe and Asia, they were amazed. They began to call America a 'new world'. The quickening race between the kingdoms of Portugal and Spain were to become the richest trading nations in the world. The prize in the race was rich indeed: the gold, silks, pearls and spices of the East Indies and China or Cathay. The wealth and wonders of the Far East had been revealed to Europe by the earlier travels of Marco Polo and other explorers.
By 1450, the ancient overland route to Cathay had been blocked by hostile Arab traders. The race was now on to find a new route east - by sea. Africa was the first land barrier to be passed by European seafarers. Portugal took the lead, probing further and further down the west coast of Africa. With each voyage, sailors brought back valuable experience in navigating by the unfamiliar stars, winds and currents south of the Equator. In 1488, Bartholomew Diaz was the first European to round the Cape of Good Hope, opening the sea route from Europe to the Indian Ocean. Ten years later, Vasco da Gama reached India. Spain replied by sending an Italian, Christopher Columbus, west across the Atlantic in search of a direct sea route to Cathay. Instead, Columbus discovered the Carribean, Central and South America (1492 - 1504).
Part 2
Christopher Columbus was born in 1451 in Genoa, a seaport in northern Italy. At an early age he went to sea, sailing on trading ships in the Mediterranean. In the 1470's, Columbus moved to Portugal. From here, he made several voyages in the Atlantic Ocean.
Like all educated Europeans, Columbus believed that you could reach the Indies by sailing west, across the Atlantic. The question was, how far did you have to travel to reach the Indies? Columbus thought that you did not have to travel far at all. This was based on the mistaken idea, which many people believed at the time, that six-sevenths of the earth was dry land rather than sea. This dry land could only mean Europe, Africa and Asia. So these lands must cover most of the earth. This made Columbus think that the world was much smaller ...
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Like all educated Europeans, Columbus believed that you could reach the Indies by sailing west, across the Atlantic. The question was, how far did you have to travel to reach the Indies? Columbus thought that you did not have to travel far at all. This was based on the mistaken idea, which many people believed at the time, that six-sevenths of the earth was dry land rather than sea. This dry land could only mean Europe, Africa and Asia. So these lands must cover most of the earth. This made Columbus think that the world was much smaller than it really is. Columbus decided that he was to sail across the Atlantic and find Asia. He also wanted to become rich and famous. But he was also very religious. He believed that he had been given the special task by God - to take Christianity to the Indies.
Before he could set sail, Columbus needed to find a sponsor who would pay for a voyage across the Atlantic. Voyages of exploration were very risky, expensive and some explorers either disappeared or returned without finding anything useful. Ships, equipment and the crew's wages were also expensive. So, in 1484, Columbus went to King John of Portugal to ask his backing. King John's experts looked at the plan for a year before they decided to reject it. The Portuguese were putting all their efforts into finding a south-eastern route to the Indies, sailing around Africa. They had no money to spare for Columbus. Next, Columbus went to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain. The queen was impressed by Columbus - like him, she was very religious. But in the 1480's, the Spanish were busy fighting a war against the Muslims who still ruled part of Spain. It wasn't until this war was won, in 1492, that Ferdinand and Isabella agreed to pay for Columbus's voyage.
In May 1492, Columbus went to the port of Palos on Spain's south-western coast to prepare three ships for the voyage. The ships were all trading vessels, called caravels. Two were light, fast ships. Their names were the Nina and the Pinta. The third, the Santa Maria, was a larger, heavier and slower type of ship. This was to be Columbus's flagship. In Palos, Columbus was lucky to get the help of the Pinzon brothers, Martin and Vicente. They belonged to an important local seafaring family. The brothers offered to captain the two smaller caravels, and they set about recruiting sailors to man the ships. This was not an easy task. Columbus was an unknown foreigner in Palos. His plans were thought to be risky and uncertain. Without the Pinzon brothers, he would have had trouble getting people to volunteer for such a voyage. It took ten weeks to get the ships ready and to hire ninety men and boys for the voyage. The ships were loaded with enough food to last a year, as well as tools, weapons and other equipment. On 3rd August 1492, the little fleet at last set sail from the port of Palos.
After leaving Spain, the ships headed south-west towards the Canary Islands. Columbus believed that if he sailed west from the Canaries he would reach Cipangu (Japan). He also knew that the winds in the Canaries usually blew to west. If he had sailed west from Spain, he would have had to battle against the wind. After a stop for repairs in the Canaries, the ships headed off across the unknown ocean. The winds were perfect and the ships made good speed. As the days passed without sight of land, the sailors grew more and more troubled. Columbus's main concern was to keep the crew happy so that they wouldn't turn against him.
In the early morning of the 12th October, the cry that everyone had been waiting for came from the look-out on the Pinta: "Land! Land!" After a month at sea, a small, low-flying island had been sighted. The three ships dropped anchor at the island and Columbus went ashore. There were people watching Columbus who called themselves the Taino, a word meaning 'good people', and they called their island Guanahani. However, Columbus was convinced that he had reached the Indies and he called them Indians. He called the island San Salvador. Today it is also known as Watling Island, in the Bahamas.
Columbus wanted to lose no time, but to press on to find Cipangu and then the mainland. He was sure that these lands, with their cities and heaps of gold, must be very close. The ships sailed south and on the 28th October, Columbus reached this large island, which the local people called Cuba. He sent some of his men inland to find the king. They found a large village were they were welcomed and sampled many new foods like maize and sweet potatoes. They saw people smoking the leaves of a strange plant, tobacco. But they did not find any gold nor cities. Leaving Cuba, they sailed south-east and found another large island. They then explored the island and Columbus called it the island Hispaniola, or 'the Spanish Island'. The Spaniards stayed for several weeks, giving the Indians small belts in return for tiny amounts of gold. Then the Santa Maria was wrecked on a reef. Columbus decided to set sail home to Spain, leaving thirty-nine of his men behind, to look for more gold and find out more about this tiny island.
Columbus caused a sensation when he returned to the Spanish court. He had brought back six 'Indians' with him. Columbus showed many riches to the king and queen including the small amount of gold. Ferdinand and Isabella were delighted. Now they had the chance to spread their religion to new lands and to make Spain rich and powerful at the same time. The whole court knelt, thanking God. Columbus was made a nobleman and richly rewarded. He was invited to ride by the king's side and from now on, he would be known as the Admiral of the Ocean Sea. It was his moment of triumph.
In September 1493, Columbus sailed back to Hispaniola with a fleet of seventeen ships. This time, the aim was to make a Spanish settlement on the island - to build a town, plant crops and mine for gold. This settlement could then be the base for more voyages of exploration, on to the mainland of China. Sailing in Columbus's fleet were almost 1,500 men. There were soldiers, farmers, government officials, gentlemen in search of gold and adventure, and priests whose job would be to teach the local people to become Christians. All of them hoped to make a new life in the Indies. They took with them tools, seeds from more than 100 plants, and farm animals. Columbus's three tiny ships had amazed the Tainos. He was surprised to find out that the men that he had left on the island before had been killed by the local people.
The Spanish settlers hated life on Hispaniola. It always seemed to be raining and they began to suffer from strange new sicknesses. Many of the seeds they brought would not grow in the climate, and they ran short of food. The Tainos were forced to work for the Spaniards, to provide them with gold and food. But there was not much gold on Hispaniola. The Tainos could not satisfy the demands of the Spaniards. Soon, there was open warfare. The Tainos were no match for European weapons. They were killed in vast numbers or captured and turned into slaves.
Part 3
Columbus made two more voyages of exploration, in 1498 and 1502. On the first of them, he found the mouth of a wide river, the Orinoco. Such a river could only come from a large area of land, a continent or mainland rather than an island.
Columbus described it as 'new world'. Yet he still believed that this 'new world' was part of the Indies. In fact, he was on the north-eastern coast of South America.
I chose Christopher Columbus as my chosen explorer for this project because I feel that his life and voyages were fascinating to learn about and I've always wanted to know where he sailed to and what treasures he had found. Columbus was and, still is a very famous explorer. He is remembered for his outstanding bravery and for sailing across the Atlantic to the West Indies, for many other ships did not venture far in other waters, as little was known of them and sailors were afraid of the many dangers they might meet, for example, sea - monsters!
His great knowledge of direction led Columbus to discover on his first voyage, the islands of Hispaniola and San Salvador, two islands of the West Indies which were closest to Spain. However, on his second and third journeys, he discovered Jamaica, Trinidad, the South American mainland and the Gulf of Mexico. His discoveries made Spain one of the richest trading nations in the world as well as one of the biggest. It opened new trading routes to the East as well as the newly found West Indies and America. New things were brought back to Spain like Tobacco and rubber, in which the Spanish greatly benefited from. But, for the Americans, the coming of Columbus to their lands was a complete disaster. Many of them were killed as a result of diseases brought from Europe and many of them were forced to work as slaves in sugar plantations and gold mines. Now, there are no more Tainos left on any of the islands Columbus's tiny fleet visited in 1492. After Columbus's voyages, it made the world think highly of Spain and gave the Spanish a lot respect, that is, before the English started to condemn Spain in 1588.
Part 4
The Age of Exploration and Discovery proved to be very important to Europe, especially Spain and Portugal. It opened new trade routes to the west as well as new riches being brought back from these distant lands. Unfortunately for Spain, Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan had found a quicker route to the Indies by sailing west. But the Spanish had found something else - a new world called America. Within this 165 year period of discovery, saw an incredibly fast growth in human knowledge. In 1492, Europeans did not know what lay across the Atlantic Ocean. Thirty years later, they had sailed all the way round the world.
DATE CHART
1415 Portuguese capture of 1513 Balboa's discovery
Ceuta. of the Pacific.
1419 - 60 Henry the Navigator at 1518 - 21 Cortec's conq-
at Sagres. uest of the Aztecs.
420 Portuguese discovery of 1519 Magellan reached
Madeira. the Pacific.
431 Portuguese discovery of 1531 - 33 Pizarro's conq-
Azores. uest of the Incas.
441 Portuguese discovery of the 1535 Cartier sailed up
Cape Verde Islands. The St. Lawrence.
487 Bartholomew Diaz reached 1562 - 67 Voyages of
The Cape of Good Hope. John Hawkins.
492 Christopher Columbus crossed 1577 - 80 Drake's
The Atlantic. voyage around the
World.
497 - 99 Vasco da Gama's voyage
to Calicut.
497 John Cabot discovered
Newfoundland.
500 Portuguese annexation of
Brazil.
511 Portuguese capture of Goa.
