Age of Exploration Geography

​Exploration to the
New World

Traveling between Europe and North America

​Before establishing colonies in North America, the Europeans lived in three main countries:
- England
- France
- Spain

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Before the New World

​Well... where did all these countries come from!?
They came from EUROPE, which is all circled red. Europe is one of the seven continents, and one of the two most important to this lesson!

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Before the New World

​Well... what continent was the New World?

It was NORTH AMERICA. North America, circled in red, is where all the different countries from Europe will be settling and calling a home away from home.

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Before the New World

​Those three countries (England, France, Spain) were responsible for finding North America and establishing the New World.
People from England were English, from France were French, and from Spain were Spanish.

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Europe:
A Closer Look

​Getting to the New World

For the Age of Exploration to happen, the countries of England, France, and Spain had to cross the Atlantic Ocean.
This was no easy task and took around 3-4 months to do correctly.

start

end

Poll

Do you think you could sail from Europe to North America?

• Yes, definitely!

• No, I'd get lost...

Draw

Let's give it a try!

Circle one of the countries (England, France, or Spain) and draw a line connecting them to North America.

Multiple Choice

What direction did you travel from Europe to North America?

• north
• east
• south
• west

​Founding of the New World

Well who actually found the New World, aka North America?
The credit belongs mostly to Christopher Columbus! His famous expedition in 1492, trying to find the West Indies, landed him in North America. From this point in history forward, people would come to North America from Europe to establish colonies.

In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue!

​Exploration to the New World

The explorers had to travel WEST across the Atlantic Ocean to get to North America!
The French settled more in the North.
The English on the East coast.
The Spanish more South.

French

Spanish

English

​The New World Explored

The New World, after being found and countries started colonizing, it started to look like this after about 200 years.
The English (British) had less land but more people, while the French and Spanish controlled more land.

We're here!

Multiple Select

What were the two major continents in this age of exploration?

• Europe

• Asia

• North America

• Antarctica

Multiple Choice

What was the name of this ocean the explorers had to cross?

• Arctic Ocean
• Indian Ocean
• Atlantic Ocean
• Southern Ocean

Draw yourself going to explore the New World!