The Age of European Exploration Essay

direction even when out of sight of land. When the new world was discovered, “The

The European Exploration was a time where Europeans explored new places, bringing new ideas to Europe. These explorations were a major factor in taking Europe from a “Dark Age” to a Renaissance. There are many causes that led to these great accomplishments, and the Renaissance.

Throughout the 15th and 16th centuries, European exploration and expansion thrived. Portugal led the way in this movement of exploration with their development of efficiently built ships known as caravels, seafaring devices such as compasses and astrolabes, and cutting-edge naval academies. Various European countries, including Spain, England, France, etc., followed Portugal’s example by utilizing their progressive naval technology. These technological advancements led to the crossing of oceans and eventually the circumnavigation of the world. These Portuguese sailing techniques were implemented by explorers such as Christopher Columbus, John Cabot, Hernando Cortes, Francisco Pizarro, and Bernal Castillo allowing them to travel by sea to places such as Africa, East Asia, the Caribbean, and the Americas. These nations and explorers were persuaded to put in the time and effort to complete these complex expeditions by three essential motivations. Financial gain, political dignity, and religious expansion were fundamental motivators for the European Age of Exploration.

European explorers first landed on the shores of what would later become North America more than 500 years ago. Not long after the first explorers had entered the "New World" they found out that they were not alone on this new frontier. Their neighbors in this new land were the Native Americans who had been there for centuries, virtually unaware of life outside the continent. Thus began an inconsistent and often times unstable relationship between the European settlers and the North American Indians. Two nations who had particularly interesting relationships with the Native Americans were the British and the French, both of whom took different approaches to their relations with the Indians economically as well

Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca and his companions, Andres Dorantes, Alonzo del Castillo Maldonado, and Estevan were the sole survivors of a four hundred men expedition. The group of them went about the friendly Indian tribes preforming miracles of healing, with the power of Christianity. At one time five sick persons were brought into the camp, and the Indians insisted that Castillo should cure them. At sunset he pronounced a blessing over the sick, and all the Christians united in a prayer to God, asking him to restore the sick to health, and on the following morning there was not a sick person among them. De Vaca and his companions reached the Pacific coast where the Indians, showed signs of civilization, living in houses covered with straw, wearing cotton clothes and dressed skins, with belts and ornaments of stone, and cultivating their fields, but had been driven therefrom by the brutal Spanish soldiery and had taken refuge in the mountains, de Vaca and his comrades, being regarded as emissaries from the Almighty, exercised such power over these untutored savages that, at their bidding, the Indians returned to their deserted habitations, and began again to cultivate their fields, the assurance being given them by de Vaca and his companions that henceforth they would

His calculations from reading all the ‘modern’ books of the sea added up to about 2,400 miles across the Atlantic to China. He was wrong, in about 7,000 ways or miles to be more exact. An additional three extra months were spent by a bunch of 15th-century pilgrims who were developing smallpox and dying from starvation. But all hope was not lost for on October 12, 1492, a glorious cry of “land ho’!” was exclaimed by the bewildering crew. Columbus had finally after about a decade finally found the Indies (Bahamas). The news of his accomplishments spread like smallpox and the plague and every European was astonished. Dias and Gama became irrelevant and everyone was talking about Columbus. The new Admiral of the Ocean Sea, Columbus, had absolutely everyone wanting to explore to the sea.

In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue to find a route to Asia, but what he discovered was actual a whole new world. When Columbus set sail he was on his way to find a safer, faster, and more efficient way to India and Asia. In theory, traveling west without the knowledge of land and the accurate size of the Earth would have been a bright idea. Although, the Earth was much larger than thought and there were other lands that people in Europe had no idea about. When Cristopher Columbus set out to India westward he had to have some type of navigation to keep him on track. The two main navigational tools he used were dead reckoning and celestial navigation.

Christopher Columbus was given permission by Spain to sail west and try and discover a new trade route to the West Indies. Spain was willing to put the money forward for the expedition because if it worked out than they would be able to make more money off of the trade that would come from the new route. When it was discovered that it wasn't the West Indies at all but it was a completely new continent. What this meant to Spain was that there was a continent filled with possible resources, in which they capitalized.

Throughout the European age of exploration, all of Europe clamored for a piece of the spice trade, using dubious and often brutal tactics to establish a foothold in India and Southeast Asia. Spain, Portugal, England and the Dutch competed with each other to establish dominance in the region. As European outposts began to form a ring around the Indian Ocean, European countries started to acquire enormous wealth that helped to fuel the colonization of any territory deemed suitable for settlement. With direct European access to Asian goods, primarily spices, these resources became less of luxury items and more of necessities, thus requiring more trade and

The Spanish were the first of the European countries to make it to the New World. The Spanish were mainly focused on gaining land and discovering new lands. Christopher Columbus was a Portuguese sailor that went to Spain’s most powerful regional rulers, Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile, to propose his idea of westward voyage. Spain agreed to the voyage and collected ninety men and three ships. Believing that he had reached China, he returned to Spain and brought

The voyages that Columbus took gave Europe a new outlook on how the world was and how they fit in the new world. It gave Europe the idea to explore more lands. Portugal and Spain wanted to claim these lands for themselves. A decree was made that created the Line of Demarcation, which is an imaginary line that divided the ocean which Spain could claim the land west of the line. Portugal did not like this, they thought it was unfair. Then they had a Treaty of Tordesillas, which moved the line another 800 miles to the west.

Christopher Columbus sailed across the Atlantic Ocean he was born in Italy thereafter, became a sailor in Portugal who had a passion for sailing. As he got older, he became a captain who desired to travel around the world with a map he come across with only continents parts of Africa, Europe, and Asia. There were plenty of European traders that wanted to sail west from the other side of the Ocean they thought they would find treasure valuable items spices, jewels and gold to trade. His plan was to sail west to China calculating his journey from Spain will take him approximately 21 days he underestimates his distance.

After Columbus, more expeditions followed. In 1513 Vasco Núñez de Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama and discovered the Pacific Ocean and Juan Ponce de León explored the coasts of Florida. Ferdinand Magellan’s expedition sailed around the tip of South America, across the Pacific to the Philippines, through the Indian Ocean, and back to Europe around the southern tip of Africa between 1519 and

After these events he went on to a more peaceful void of ventures. He made three voyages to find the North-West Passage, which was made possible by Elizabeth and other city financiers. In the first of these three journeys which was in 1576 he found what is now called

Ferdinand Magellan was a Portuguese explorer who set out from Spain in September 20, 1519 with 5 ships, which were the San Antonio, the Victoria, the Conception, and the Santiago with 270 men, trying to discover a western sea route to the Spice Islands in Indonesia. He set sail to West Africa than Brazil, he searched for the Rio de la Plata, a large estuary in Brazil. But, he failed. The voyage was dangerous and long, and out of the 5 ships he went out to explore, he only came back with 1 ship, and 18 men. On October 21, he discovered the strait he was looking for, he named it the Strait of Magellan, which was located near the top of South America. Only 3 ships entered, one was wrecked and another was stranded. It took 38 days to navigate,