Age of Exploration: Chapter 4-Christopher Columbus

Age of Exploration: Christopher Columbus

by Charles Montgomery

​Sailing West to the East Indies

• ​Believed he could reach East Indies by sailing west

• ​Believed that the Earth was smaller than what most people believed

• ​Spent 7 years trying to convince rulers to sponser expeditions

• ​King Ferdinand and Queen Isabell of Spain agree

• ​Promised to claim land for Spain

• ​Was given three ships, Nina, Pinta, Santa Maria

• ​Left Spain on August 3, 1492

• ​Sailed to Canary Islands and resupplied

• ​set sail for unchartered waters

• ​faced mutiny from crew

• ​found land on October 12, 1492

Multiple Choice

Which monarch agreed to fund Columbus' expedition?

• King of England

• King of France

• King and Queen of Spain

• Prince Henry of Portugal

Multiple Choice

What did Columbus have to do in order to get his expedition paid for?

• Claim all lands he came across for Spain

• Find gold and bring it back to Spain

• Capture and bring back as many slaves as he could

• Agree to pay back the cost of the expedition if it failed

​The First Encounter

• ​Thought he made it to East Indies

  • ​Was actually in the Bahamas

• ​Named land San Salvador and claimed it for Spain

• ​Was greated by native Taino's

• ​He called them Indians, (again he thought he made it to India?

• ​Sailed on to find mainland China

• ​Landed on present day Cuba and Hispanola (Dominican Republic and Haiti)

Multiple Choice

Where did Christopher Columbus make landfall on his first voyage?

• The East Indies

• The Bahamas

• Cape of Good Hope

• Virginia

Multiple Choice

Why did Columbus call the Taino people "Indians"?

• It was the Spanish word for strangers

• They looked like people he had seen in India

• That is the name they called themselves

• He thought he had reached the East Indies

​The Triumphant Return

• ​Columbus tells King and Queen about all the things he had seen

• ​Is rewarded with money and land

• ​Is given the title "Admiral of the Ocean Sea"

• ​Not everyone convinced Columbus reached the east

• ​Poruguese believed he had found unchartered land off coast of Africa or in the Atlantic Ocean

​The Treaty of Tordesillas

• ​Spain and Portugal become huge trading rivals

• ​Disputes break out between the two

• ​Pope (both countries are Catholic) tries to settle disagreements

• ​Diplomats finally work out agreement

  • ​imaginary line from North Pole to South Pole and west of Verde Islands

  • ​Everything west of line could be claimed by Spain

  • ​Everything east of line could be claimed by Portugal

  • ​No country could claim lands already claimed by a Christian ruler.

​The Effects of Treaty of Tordesillas

• ​Almost all lands in North and South America (except Brazil) are under Spanish control

  ​Brazil was given to Portugal (even though they wouldn't discover it for several more years (da Gama)

• ​Indigenous peoples were completly disregarded and had no rights to land

• ​Spain sent out more expeditions to determine what lands were actually within their side of the line.

Multiple Select

What countries signed the Treaty of Tordesillas?

(Mark all that apply.)

• Spain

• Brazil

• Cuba

• Portugal

• France

Multiple Choice

What did the Treaty of Tordesillas do?

• Divided the western hemisphere into North America and South America

• Legalized the slave trade

• Divided the land in the western hemisphere between Spain and Portugal

• Permitted slavery in the Americas

​The Later Voyages of Columbus

• ​Columbus made three more voyages to the Americas

• ​2nd voyage he mapped most of the Caribbean islands

  • ​established permanent colony of Santo Domingo, Hispanola

  • ​Searched for gold but found none

• ​3rd voyage Columbus explored the north coast of South America

  • ​Columbus's brothers angered the indigenous people by forcing them to work in gold mines

  • Also angered Spanish settlers of Hispanola by favoring some over others

  • ​Word gets back to Spain and Columbus is removed as govenor

    • ​Brothers are forced to return to Spain

• ​4th voyage saw Columbus shipwrecked on Jamaica for one year

​The Final Blow

• ​When Columbus died in 1506, almost nobody noticed

• ​Amerigo Vespuci was exploring coast of South America in 1501 and wrote about his voyage

  • ​Described it as a densely populated continent and refered to it as a "New World".

• ​German mapmaker read Vespuci's accounts and labeled this new continent America in honor of Vespuci, not Columbus

Multiple Choice

How many voyages did Columbus make?

• 1

• 2

• 3

• 4

Multiple Choice

Who is the Americas named after?

• Christopher Columbus

• Prince Henry of Portugal

• A German mapmaker

• Amerigo Vespuci