Table Of ContentCrabtree Publishing Company
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Exp loration
in the
Renaissance
Lynne Elliott
Crabtree Publishing Company
www.crabtreebooks.com
Author: Lynne Elliott Photographs and reproductions:
Editor-in-Chief: Lionel Bender The Art Archive: page Bibliotheque Nationale,
Editors:Lynn Peppas, Simon Adams, Lizann Flatt Paris: page 4; Laurie Platt Winfrey: page 7;
Proofreader:Crystal Sikkens Musee de la Renaissance (Chateau) Ecouen/
Project coordinator:Robert Walker
Gianni Dagli Orti: page 10; Private Collection/
Photo research: Susannah Jayes
Marc Charmet: page 11; Harper Collins
Design concept: Robert MacGregor
Publishers: page 12; Marine Museum,
Designer: Malcolm Smythe
Production coordinator:Margaret Amy Salter Lisbon/Gianni Dagli Orti: page 16;
Production: Kim Richardson Museum of the City of New York/
Prepress technician:Margaret Amy Salter 29.100.709: page 25
Giraudon/Art Resource, NY: cover
With thanks to First Folio. The Bridgeman Art Library: Palace of
Westminster, London, UK: page 9
Cover photo: The Departure of Christopher Columbus
The Granger Collection: pages 8, 13, 17
from the Port of Palos, Spain.
iStockphoto.com: pages 5, 6, 15, 18, 23
Northwind Picture Archives: pages 26, 27,
Photo on page 1: The Pilgrim Fathers arrive in
28, 30, 31
North America.
Topfoto: pages 19, 20; The British Library/
This book was produced for Crabtree Publishing Company HIP: page 14; The Image Works: pages 21,
by Bender Richardson White. 22; Print Collector/HIP: pages 1, 24, 29
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Elliott, Lynne, 1968- Elliott, Lynne, 1968-
Exploration in the Renaissance / Lynne Elliott. Exploration in the Renaissance / Lynne Elliott.
p. cm. -- (Renaissance world)
Includes index.
(Renaissance world) ISBN 978-0-7787-4613-3 (pbk. : alk. paper) -- ISBN 978-0-7787-4593-8
Includes index. (reinforced library binding : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-0-7787-4593-8 (bound).--ISBN 978-0-7787-4613-3 (pbk.) 1. Discoveries in geography--European--Juvenile literature. 2.
Renaissance--Juvenile literature. 3. America--Discovery and explo-
ration--Juvenile literature. I. Title. II. Series.
1. Discoveries in geography--European--Juvenile literature.
2. Renaissance--Juvenile literature. 3. America--Discovery and G175.E55 2009
exploration--Juvenile literature. I. Title. II. Series: Renaissance 910.9'024--dc22
world (St. Catharines, Ont.)
G175.E45 2009 j910.9'024 C2008-907901-9 2008052601
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Contents
The Roots of Exploration 4
The Age of Exploration 6
Organizing a Voyage 8
Life On Board a Ship 10
Dangers of Exploration 12
Maps and Navigation 14
Early Portuguese Explorations 16
Spain and the New World 20
The Northwest Passage 24
Settlements and Colonies 26
Columbian Exchange 30
Further Reading, Websites, Glossary, Index 32
3
The Roots of xploration
E
Renaissance Advancements
The Age of Exploration was a period
from the 1400s to the 1600s during In the time immediately before the
which Europeans sailed around the world Renaissance, Medieval times or the Middle
looking for sea routes to Asia and India. Ages, Europeans knew little about the world
On their journeys they discovered lands beyond their shores. Only a few had ever
and people they never knew existed. traveled afar. Medieval Europeans did not
have the tools, such as accurate maps,
The Renaissance
to navigate across great seas.
The Age of Exploration took place during
the European Renaissance, which lasted from During the Renaissance, scientists
about 1300 to 1600. It was a time of great rediscovered ancient books about astronomy,
cultural achievement, when scholars and geography, and cartography, or mapmaking,
artists were interested in ancient Greek and that helped them gather geographical
Roman ideas in art, literature, government, knowledge about their world. They improved
and science. It was also a time when people celestialnavigationby adopting pre-existing
were filled with a spirit of adventure and aids, such as the compass and astrolabe,
had a genuine curiosity about the world. to help them sail across uncharted oceans.
Renaissance shipbuilders,
particularly those in
Portugal, designed sturdy,
seaworthy ships known as
caravels, with new rigs of
masts and sails, that could
sail across open oceans.
Traders carried luxury goods
over thousands of miles on
camel and horse caravans
from Asia to Middle Eastern
ports. From there they were
brought to European coastal
towns on Italian ships.
4
TIMELINE
1416:Prince Henry begins 1494:Treaty of Tordesillas divides 1519–21:Hernán Cortés leads the
encouraging exploration the New World between Spain Spanish conquest of the Aztec
of West Africa and Portugal empire in Mexico
1487–88:Bartolomeu Dias is the 1498:Vasco da Gama becomes 1607:First permanent English
first to sail around Africa’s the first European to sail from colony in America
Cape of Good Hope Europe to India 1607:Henry Hudson first
1492:Christopher Columbus 1519–22:Ferdinand Magellan’s hired to find a northern
reaches the Bahamas crew circumnavigatesthe globe sea passage to the Indies
From Trade to Exp loration
One of the earliest motives for Renaissance and merchants wanted to find a way to trade
exploration was the search for a sea route to directly with the East without Arabian and
the spice-rich areas of India and Asia. During Turkish interference. Since the Arabs kept
the 1100s and 1200s, Europeans began to their trade routes a secret, the Europeans
import more and more luxury goods from looked for eastern trade routes by way
the East. Turkish and Arabian traders of the world’s great oceans.
imposed high taxes and toll prices onto
the goods. By the time the items reached The Goods
Europe, they could cost hundreds of times Europeans used saffron, ginger, cloves,
more than the original price. European rulers cinnamon, and pepper to flavor their
food and to make medicine and
cosmetics. Fabrics, such as Chinese
silk and Egyptian and Indian cotton,
were imported and colored with dyes
made from Eastern plants, such
as indigo and henna. African
ivory and semi-precious stones
were made into jewelry,
while gold and silver
were minted into coins.
The astrolabe helped
Renaissance explorers
find their way across the
oceans by using the position
of stars or the Sun in the sky
to tell them where they were.
5
The ge of xploration
A E
Advances in shipbuilding
and navigation had made
it possible to explore
farther than before.
Renaissance explorers,
monarchs, and merchants
wanted to expand their
personal wealth and
power and spread
Christianity throughout
the world.
New Wealth
Explorers, rulers, and Map from a Spanish atlas of the Molucca Islands in Indonesia.
merchants knew that there The islands were called the Spice Islands because of the many
were enormous profits to be different spices that grew there in the wild.
made by bringing luxury
goods, such as spices and silks, to Europe kingdoms by dominating different lands
from the East. The voyages to Africa, and and peoples around the world. The larger
later to the Americas, were also searches the geographic empire a ruler had, the
for gold. Europeans used gold as currency, more political power they held.
or money. Gold could be brought back to
Religion
Europe, minted into coins, and deposited
into royal treasuries. Together with the church, European
rulers wanted to spread Christianity
Political Power
to non-Christian people of Asia, Africa,
Medieval monarchs were too busy securing and America. Christian monarchs, such as
power in their own lands to search out Isabella of Spain, sent Catholic missionaries
trading routes and overseas territories. on voyages to convert indigenous, or native,
Renaissance monarchs, however, reduced the people to Christianity. She believed this was
power of the nobility within their kingdoms. her duty to God. Prince Henry of Portugal
With fewer internal troubles, they were more wanted to defeat Muslim rulers in Africa
willing to look outward and expand their and convert the people to Christianity.
6
Competition
The race to find a sea route to the East Merchant Companies
started with the Portuguese and the Spanish. In the late 1500s and 1600s, merchants
By the late 1500s, other European countries formed companies that asked monarchs
for charters, or written permission, to
saw the huge profits that the Portuguese and
fund explorations to new lands in the
the Spanish were making from exploration.
hope of finding new trade items to
Monarchs and merchants from England,
bring back to Europe. Monarchs granted
France, and the Netherlands began to
these companies a monopoly, or sole
sponsor their own voyages of exploration.
rights to trade, in the area they explored.
Their ships sailed in the northern part of the In return, the companies gave the
Atlantic Ocean, looking for a sea route to monarch a percentage of the profits and
Asia, which led to the discovery, exploration, claimed the new land for the monarch.
and colonization of North America.
In 1492, King Ferdinand of Spain expelled the Muslim Moors from the south of the country.
He created a unified Spain which allowed him to look for other parts of the world to rule.
7
Organizing a Voyage
A lot of planning went into a voyage of
exploration. An explorer had to get royal
approval, funding, ships, supplies, and
a crew. Only when these items were
secured, could the dangerous and
difficult voyage begin.
Exp lorers
Some explorers were from the merchant
class of Renaissance society. They grew up
near important shipping ports. They signed
on with merchant ships, where they received
their training in sailing and navigation.
Other Renaissance explorers were noblemen
and soldiers. Instead of sailing experience, A German woodcut, 1486, showing the
they had the leadership abilities to organize building of a ship, the most expensive item
and command a voyage. Despite the in a voyage. Explorers often needed three or
different social classes explorers came more ships. One was used only for supplies,
from, they were all curious, brave, but a third, extra ship was useful in case one
and sought fame and fortune. was destroyed by a storm or in a battle.
Finding Funding Gathering Supp lies
Explorers could not afford to pay for a Ships were equipped with weapons such
voyage by themselves. They had to raise as cannons, gunpowder, crossbows, suits of
money for the ships, crews’ salaries, and armor, and swords needed to capture trading
supplies. They usually approached monarchs, towns or to fight pirates at sea. Explorers
wealthy nobles, merchant companies, or tried to carry enough food, water, and
business people and convinced them to wine to last the voyage, as well as wood
finance their journey. The major sponsor for cooking fires and repairs. Ships also
of the voyage usually supplied the ships. In carried trade goods, which included mirrors,
return, the explorer would claim new lands glass beads, bolts of fabric, and bells. Later
for the monarch and new trade routes for voyagers carried metal cooking utensils
the merchant company. and metal fishhooks to trade.
8
