1. The Age of Exploration

5. Marco Polo’s Travels

8. A Map of the Known World, pre- 1492

15. The Caravel This type of ship made long distance sea voyages possible. It could sail with and against the wind, had a deeper draft to take on large ocean waves and was more maneuverable than ships in the past.

17. Beyond Darkest Africa The Portuguese yearned to find a sea route to India to thwart Arab “middlemen” who controlled overland routes, keeping prices of pepper and other spices high by keeping supplies low. Glory, God or Gold?

18. Bartholomeu Dias Portuguese explorer commissioned by King John II of Portugal to find a trade route to India by sea. Dias revisited African ports that had been discovered along the way. A fierce, 13 day storm blew his ship off course rounding the tip of Africa. He only realized how far he had gone when the skies cleared.

19. Bartholomeu Dias He had actually rounded the tip of Africa. Dias wanted to keep sailing all the way to India, but his crew refused. The discovery of the passage around Africa was significant because, for the first time, Europeans could trade directly with India and the other parts of Asia, bypassing the overland route through the Middle East, with its expensive middlemen.

20. Did You Know? Dias originally named the Cape of Good Hope the "Cape of Storms“. It was later renamed by King John II of Portugal to the Cape of Good Hope because it represented the opening of a route to the east.

24. Vasco da Gama -In Calicut, da Gama was amazed by spices, rare silks and precious gems. -they filled their boats up with the goods and returned to Portugal where they sold them for 60x what the voyage had cost them! - The 27,000 mile trip was not just a profitable success, it was significant as the Portuguese had found the trade route to Asia.

25. Christofo Colombo [1451-1506]

29. Columbus’ Four Voyages

30. Other Voyages of Exploration