Exploration and the New World

This explorer traveled along the Silk Road to the Far East and brought back wondrous tales of China. These tales sparked European interest in exploration for routes to the region.

• Amerigo Vespucci

• Marco Polo

• Christopher Columbus

• Ferdinand Magellan

An Italian-born navigator who realized that Brazil was part of a New World to be explored by the Europeans. He also felt these new lands should be named after him.

• Amerigo Vespucci

• Marco Polo

• Christopher Columbus

• Ferdinand Magellan

This explorer secured finances from the Spanish monarchy to find a Western trade route to India, but instead discovered the islands of the Caribbean.

• Amerigo Vespucci

• Marco Polo

• Christopher Columbus

• Ferdinand Magellan

This explorer was the first to circumnavigate the globe and revealed the difficulty of the vastness of establishing Western trade routes.

• Amerigo Vespucci

• Marco Polo

• Christopher Columbus

• Ferdinand Magellan

The economic system (employed during the age of exploration and colonization)

whereby colonies were exploited for the benefits and wealth they could bring to the mother country.

Some of the technological innovations that allowed Europeans to compete with the Muslims and discovery the New World was/were (click all that apply):

• The compass, which enabled sailors to know direction.

• The astrolabe, which helped sailors determine the ship's latitude.

• The caravel: small, fast, heavily armed ships.

• Very detailed maps of unexplored regions of the New World.

A German monk who challenged the Catholic church's position of salvation through penance by publicly stating that salvation comes only through God's grace and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. His teachings would prompt religious changes across Europe and establish the Protestant Reformation.

Which European nation first dominated the exploration of the New World?

• Portugal

• Spain

• England

• France

What factors led to military success of the Conquistadors (click all that apply)?

• The technological advantage of their weapons.

• The fact that these adventurers wore the armor of previous European conflicts.

• The unintentional release of bioweapons.

• The impact on morale because the indigenous peoples had never encountered an enemy like the Spanish before, and they considered that they might be gods.

Historians believe that the Native American peoples were the first to discover the New World and migrated to the Americas after the flood by way of (click all that apply):

• The frozen seas during the Ice Age allowed Asians to cross over to the New World.

• People from Asia crossed a land bridge that allowed passage after the Great Flood.

• Boats, or small ships, carried people from Asia to the Americas.

• The Native Americans did not migrate to the New World. They were always here.