Freemanpedia

The European age of Exploration during the 15th & 16th centuries saw Europe re-emerge as a world power. The Virginia SOL's want you to focus in on the causes, explorers, and effects of these voyages. It is also important to focus in on the economic systems that developed as a result. Lastly, you need to know of the other major world powers at the time (Ottoman, Mughal, China, Japan).

Explaining the roles and economic motivations of explorers and conquistadors.
Factors contributing to the European discovery of lands in the Western Hemisphere

• Demand for gold, spices, and natural resources in Europe (GGG)
• 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

Describing the influence of religion
Means of diffusion of Christianity

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

Explaining migration, settlement patterns, cultural diffusion, and social classes in the colonized areas.
Americas

• Expansion of overseas territorial claims and European emigration to North and South America
• Demise of Aztec and Inca Empires
• Legacy of a rigid class system and dictatorial rule in Latin America
• Forced migration of Africans who had been enslaved
• Colonies’ imitation of the culture and social patterns of their parent countries

Africa

• European trading posts along the coast
• Trade in slaves, gold, and other resources

Asia

• Colonization by small groups of merchants (India, the Indies, China)
• Influence of trading companies (Portuguese, Dutch, British)

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

Mapping and explaining the triangular trade;

• The triangular trade linked Europe, Africa, and the Americas. Slaves, sugar, and rum were traded.

Describe the growth of European nations, including the Commercial Revolution and mercantilism.

• Mercantilism: An economic practice adopted by European colonial powers in an effort to become self-sufficient; based on the theory that colonies existed for the benefit of the mother country

Commercial Revolution

• European maritime nations competed for overseas markets, colonies, and resources.
• A new economic system emerged:
  • New money and banking systems were created.
  • Economic practices such as mercantilism evolved.
  • Colonial economies were limited by the economic needs of the mother country

Traditional trade patterns linking Europe with Asia and Africa
 

• Silk roads across Asia to the Mediterranean basin
• Maritime routes across the Indian Ocean
• Trans-Saharan routes across North Africa
• Northern European links with the Black Sea
• Western European sea and river trade
• South China Sea and lands of Southeast Asia

Importance of trade patterns
 

• Exchange of products and ideas

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