The Age of Exploration

Why did European merchants want to locate a new sea route to Asia? Select all that apply.

• It would be more direct and thereby reduce costs.

• traders would not have to travel overland through the Middle East

• It would provide more jobs for sailors.

• They would be able to get goods they were unable to obtain any other way.

What information did the astrolabe provide for explorers?

• their current speed

• their current latitude

• how many miles they had traveled

• the direction in which they were traveling

How did European mapmakers create more accurate maps during the Renaissance? Select all that apply.

• They now understood the size and location of North America.

• They were able to study ancient Greek and medieval Arabian maps.

• They were able to use printing presses to reproduce their maps.

• They learned for the first time that the world was round.

Where did Columbus land on his first voyage?

• on an island in the Caribbean Sea

• in what is now the Carolinas

• off the coast of Newfoundland

• in the northwestern part of South America

How did Prince Henry of Portugal encourage Europeans to explore the world?

• He paid for many voyages of exploration.

• He developed a new type of compass.

• He led an expedition to South America.

• He designed a new faster sailing ship.

The expedition of which explorer was the first to circumnavigate, or travel completely around, the world.

• Cortes

• Champlain

• Joliet

• Magellan

The country of ____________ led the way in the 1400s in exploring new trade routes to Asia.

• Portugal

• France

• England

• Spain

Columbus believed that he had been exploring the coast of ____________ instead of the Americas.

• Asia

• Africa

• Europe

• Antarctica

The Treaty of Tordesillas, which was signed in 1494, divided ___________________ between Spain and Portugal.

• South America

• Asia

• Europe

• Australia

What was the name of the Englishman who explored the North American coasts of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia in search of a waterway to Asia in 1497?

• John Cabot

• Jacques Cartier

• Chirstopher Columbus

• Giovanni da Verrazano