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AGE OF EXPLORATION 
SCRAPBOOK 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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Cover 1 
 
Table of Contents 2 
 
Motivations 3 
 
Technology 4 
 
Major Explorers 5 
 
TIME 6 
 
Columbian Exchange 7  
 
Interactions with Natives 8 
 
Triangular Trade 9 
 
Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade 10 
 
Effects of Exploration 11 
 
Works Cited 12 
 
 
 
   
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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Motivations For Explorations 
The three reasons that Europeans decided to explore the world was for God, 
gold and glory(economic, political, religious) 
 
Economic Motivations (Gold): 
The Europeans thought of the nations as if they were competing with each 
other.This means that winning meant a favorable balance of trade, which 
means more exports than imports.This also means stockpiling more precious 
metals than other nations.  
In the 1400s there was no refrigeration, so to prevent the meat from spoiling they 
put a lot of spices, like salt and pepper, to preserve and dry the meat. The 
problem was that it was hard to find the natural resources in Europe to make the 
spices, so a few European rulers decided to try and find a new route-a sea 
route. 
Political Motivations (Glory):  
Some European rulers wanted to claim as much land as they could. They 
wanted to take the natural resources from the land and used the people that 
lived on it as slaves.  
Religious Motivations(God):   
In the late 1400s, the only religion that existed in Europe was Christianity. The 
European rulers wanted to convert everyone to Christianity, since they were very 
religious. Europeans wanted to spread Christianity to the new places they 
explored.  
 

 
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Technology 
During the Age of Exploration, tools were needed to help it flourish. These tools 
were helpful because they helped explorers travel across seas. Explorers were 
able to make their discoveries because of these technological innovations.  
 
What is an astrolabe? 
An astrolabe was an invention by ancient Greeks and was used as a navigation 
tool and produced by Arab nations in the 11th century. This tool shows the ship’s 
location in latitude using the stars and the horizon. The astrolabe allowed a sailor 
to know if they’re sailing too far north or south: helping the ship stay on track. 
 
What is a carvel? 
A carvel was a new ship invented by the Portuguese in the 1400s , with masts 
and multiple sails. A carvel was faster than previous ships, could travel to coastal 
inlets and rivers and had a new type of rudder.  
 
What is gunpowder? 
Gunpowder is a black powder that guns and cannons use to fire. The weapons 
powered by gunpowder allowed them to conquer entire civilizations with only a 
small amount of fighters. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
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Major Explorers  
Prince Henry the Navigator: Portugal’s most enthusiastic supporter of exploration 
was Prince Henry, the son of Portugal’s king. Henry’s dreams of overseas 
exploration began in 1415 when he helped conquer the Muslim city of Ceuta in 
North Africa. There, he had his first glimpse of the wealth that lay beyond 
Europe. In Ceuta, the Portuguese invaders found exotic stores filled with pepper, 
cinnamon, cloves, and other spices.  
Ferdinand Magellan: ​He was a portuguese navigator and explorer who sailed 
under the flags of both Portugal and Spain. From Spain he sailed around South 
America, discovering the Strait of Magellan, and across the Pacific. Though he 
was killed in the Philippines, one of his ships continued westward to Spain, 
accomplishing the first circumnavigation of Earth.  
Vasco da Gama: Portuguese navigator whose voyages to India opened up the 
sea route from western Europe to the East by way of the Cape of Good Hope. 
Christopher Columbus: He was a master navigator and admiral whose four 
transatlantic voyages opened the way for European exploration, exploitation, 
and colonization of the Americas. He has long been called the “discoverer” of 
the New World, although Vikings such as Leif Eriksson had visited North America 
five centuries earlier. Columbus made his transatlantic voyages under the 
sponsorship of Ferdinand II and Isabella I, the Catholic Monarchs of Aragon, 
Castile, and Leon in Spain. 

 
 
 
 
 
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TIME 
I think that the most influential Explorer from this period was Christopher 
Columbus. ​Columbus made four trips across the Atlantic Ocean from Spain: in 
1492, 1493, 1498 and 1502. He was determined to find a direct water route west 
from Europe to Asia, but he never did. Instead, he accidentally stumbled upon 
the Americas. Though he didn’t really “discover” the New World—millions of 
people already lived there—his journeys marked the beginning of centuries of 
transatlantic conquest and colonization. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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Columbian Exchange 
Crops traded: ​Columbus and his followers brought​ ​wheat, barley, and rye. They 
also brought sugar canes, bananas, citrus fruits, honeybee, grapes, and 
livestock.  
 
Ideas traded: A few ideas traded were liberty, corporate structure, and 
ecology. 
 
Diseases traded: Diseases traded were ​influenza, typhoid, measles and 
smallpox. More incipient diseases such as tuberculosis, syphilis, typhus, mumps, 
whooping cough, malaria, yellow fever, and pneumonia would be 
compounded by the impact of nutritional, sanitation, and labor conditions in 
colonial America. 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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Interactions with Natives 

Why was Aztecs’ and the Inca’ population affected by exploration? 
What happened was that Hernan Cortes, the Spanish conquistador, met some 
Native American tribes who told him the Aztecs had a lot of gold, so he leads an 
expedition to Tenochtitlan and gains allies against Aztecs on the way there. He 
kidnaps Emperor Montezuma, and conquers the Aztecs. He then seized their 
gold reserves, and established Mexico as a Spanish colony.  
Francisco Pizarro was inspired by his conquest, so he decided to look for an 
empire to conquer.When he comes in contact with the Inca Empire, he tempts 
Emperor Atahualpa and kidnaps him. The Inca Empire pays the ransom, but 
Pizarro kills him anyway. Then, diseases and lack of leadership helps the Spanish 
conquer the Inca.  
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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Triangular Trade 
The first side of the triangle was the export of goods from Europe to Africa. A 
number of African kings and merchants took part in the trading of slaves from 
1440 to about 1900. For each person captured, the African rulers would receive 
a variety of goods from Europe. Some goods received were guns and 
ammunition and others. The second leg of the triangle exported enslaved 
Africans across the Atlantic Ocean to South America, the Caribbean Islands, 
and North America. The third and last leg was the return of goods to Europe 
from the Americas. The goods were the products of slave-labor plantations and 
included cotton, sugar, tobacco, molasses and rum. 
Some economic developments were mercantilism, capitalism, and joint-stock 
companies.  
Capitalism is a system based on private ownership and the investment of 
resources for profit. 
The joint-stock company worked like the corporation today, with investors 
buying shares of stock in a company. It involved people combining their money 
for a purpose. 
The nations of Europe adopted a new economic policy called mercantilism. 
Mercantilism means that a country's power depended mostly on its money. 

 
 
 
 
 
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Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade  
The main cause of the trade was that European countries were starting to 
develop. In America, there was a demand for labourers for the sugar, tobacco 
and cotton plantations. Paid labourers were too expensive, and a big amount 
of indigenous people had died because of disease and conflict, the colonists 
turned to Africa to provide cheap labor for slaves. While the emerging 
transatlantic slave trade is a complex phenomenon, its economic roots lay in 
the need for labor within expanding European empires in the New World. Many 
native workers had died due to diseases brought over with the European 
conquest and most Europeans were unsuited to the labor it such tropical 
climates. Since Africans were more accustomed to hard work in tropical 
conditions, they were resistant to tropical diseases and had experience in 
herding and agriculture. They proved excellent workers on plantations and 
mines in the New World. 
The Middle Passage was ​the second leg of the triangular trade in which 
thousands of Africans were forced into the hulls and storage of ships for the 
nightmarish voyage to the "New World." The slaves were kept under inhuman 
conditions including being branded with hot irons and restrained with chains or 
shackles. 

 
 
 
 
 
 
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Effects of Exploration  
Short-term Effects​: 
● Plantations and trading posts were built by the Portuguese in Africa 
● Diseases kills a large amount of people in the Americas 
● New foods increase population  
 
Long-term Effects:  
● European nations competed to establish colonies in the Americas. 
● Europeans expanded their wealth and power 
● Europe discovered and established sea trade with India. 
● New crops were introduced from one land to another. 
 
 
Some significant achievements were the inventions of the Carrack and the 
carvel, which were ships that could leave the Mediterranean and sail through 
the Atlantic safely, the encounter of the Americas by Christopher Columbus. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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Works Cited 
amulai, Posted by. “The Economics of Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade.” Visionaryfoundation, 
11 Nov. 2014, 
visionaryfoundation.wordpress.com/2014/11/11/the-economics-of-trans-atlantic-slave-tr
ade/. 
 
“The Columbian Exchange.” The Columbian Exchange, 
thecolumbianexchange.weebly.com/. 
 
“Columbian Exchange.” Evolution of Modern Humans: Early Modern Human Culture, 
www2.palomar.edu/users/scrouthamel/disease.htm. 
“D. Mercantilism - European Age of Exploration and Economic Revolution in Europe.” 
Google Sites,  
 
sites.google.com/site/economicsandageofexploration/d-mercantilism. 
Diary of a Vietnam Veteran, 
w3.salemstate.edu/~cmauriello/Course%20Development/WorldCIVII/Transatlantic%20Sl
ave%20Trade.htm. 
 
Domingues, Francisco Contente, and Mairin Mitchell. “Ferdinand Magellan.” 
Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 5 Nov. 2018,  
www.britannica.com/biography/Ferdinand-Magellan. 
 
Fernandez-Armesto, Felipe, and Eila M.J. Campbell. “Vasco Da Gama.” Encyclopædia 
Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 5 Nov. 2018, 
www.britannica.com/biography/Vasco-da-Gama. 
 
Flint, Valerie I.J. “Christopher Columbus.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia 
Britannica, Inc., 9 Oct. 2018, www.britannica.com/biography/Christopher-Columbus. 
 
Photosynthesis - Kid's Corner, 
www.sheppardsoftware.com/Europeweb/factfile/Unique-facts-Europe7.htm. 
“Technological Innovations of the Age of Exploration - Student Created Social Studies 
Textbook.” Google Sites, 
sites.google.com/a/ucps.k12.nc.us/mrms-7th-grade-social-studies-textbook/the-age-of-
exploration/technological-innovations-of-the-age-of-exploration. 
 
Tinashe. “The Atlantic Slave Trade.” South African History Online, 14 Nov. 2011, 
www.sahistory.org.za/topic/atlantic-slave-trade.