Which explorer sailed west in 1492 and reached the Americas?
Marco Polo Lewis and Clark Neil Armstrong Christopher Columbus
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Which explorer's crew was the first to sail all the way around the world?
Ferdinand Magellan Julius Caesar Leif Erikson Henry Hudson
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Which Italian merchant traveled the Silk Road to China and wrote about his journey?
Marco Antonio Christopher Columbus Marco Polo Alexander the Great
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Why did European exploration intensify after 1400?
Atlantic kingdoms sought sea routes to Asian trade, wealth, allies, and prestige as older land routes became harder to control The collapse of every European kingdom forced refugees to flee by sea in search of uninhabited continents A papal ban on navigation forced explorers to disguise trade voyages as religious missions to the Far East European rulers wished to end all ocean trade and return merchants to overland routes through the Holy Land
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How did Prince Henry of Portugal shape exploration?
He ended Portuguese sea travel by banning private ships, reserving all ocean voyages for the royal fleet He founded the Byzantine Empire, moving the Roman capital eastward and building Constantinople's great harbor He sponsored navigation, mapmaking, and voyages along the African coast that helped Portugal build Atlantic and Indian Ocean routes He wrote the Social Contract, arguing that government derives its legitimacy from the consent of the governed
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Why was Vasco da Gama's voyage important?
His 1497-1499 voyage around Africa to India opened a direct European sea route into Indian Ocean trade His 1519-1522 voyage crossed the Pacific and proved that the Earth could be circumnavigated by a single crew His 1571 naval campaign ended the Ottoman naval dominance over the Mediterranean at the Battle of Lepanto His 1607 voyage founded Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement on the North American mainland
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What did Columbus's 1492 voyage change?
It was a routine Mediterranean trading voyage from Genoa to Constantinople that accidentally discovered the Azores It created the Roman Empire of the New World, with Columbus declared emperor by Ferdinand and Isabella It was the first circumnavigation of the globe, completing a route from Spain westward back to the Philippines It linked Europe and the Americas in sustained contact, beginning centuries of exchange, colonization, and conflict
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What was the Treaty of Tordesillas?
A 1919 peace settlement ending World War I that stripped Germany of territory and imposed war reparations A 1215 charter that limited the English king's power and guaranteed barons certain legal rights and privileges A 1644 Chinese civil service reform that opened the imperial examinations to men from every social class A 1494 agreement that divided Spanish and Portuguese claims across newly reached Atlantic lands by an imaginary north-south line
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What was the Columbian Exchange?
The first printed Bible produced by Gutenberg's press in Mainz around 1455, making Scripture available in Latin A medieval university curriculum at the University of Paris organizing theology, law, medicine, and philosophy The movement of plants, animals, peoples, diseases, and ideas between the Eastern and Western Hemispheres after 1492 A single treaty between France and England dividing fishing rights in the North Atlantic after the Hundred Years War
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How did Spanish conquests alter the Americas?
The Aztec and Inca empires peacefully joined Spain as equal partners, exchanging ambassadors and merging legal codes Spanish expeditions, Indigenous alliances, epidemic disease, and imperial rivalry brought down the Aztec and Inca empires and reshaped American societies Spain had no lasting influence in the Americas beyond a few coastal trading posts, leaving most inland societies intact The Roman Senate governed Mexico and Peru through appointed proconsuls after defeating the Aztec navy at sea
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What did Magellan's expedition prove?
He wrote the Magna Carta after his fleet's return to Lisbon, at the request of Portuguese nobles and merchants He conquered the Songhai Empire and captured Timbuktu, ending West African control of trans-Saharan gold routes He founded the first English colony in Virginia, named Jamestown, establishing the beginning of British North America Although Magellan died en route, his crew completed the first circumnavigation and showed that global ocean routes were connected
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Why is the transatlantic slave trade central to early modern history?
It ended before European colonization of the Americas began, so it had no effect on plantation agriculture or society It forcibly moved millions of Africans into slavery, supported plantation economies, and caused deep human suffering with long consequences It involved only the exchange of spices and textiles, with no human cargo transported across the Atlantic It was a fully voluntary labor agreement between African merchants and European planters that lasted only two decades
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What was mercantilism in colonial empires?
A Greek form of direct democracy in which merchants and craftsmen voted in open assemblies on trade legislation An economic system in which governments tried to increase national wealth by controlling trade, colonies, and valuable resources A medieval Benedictine monastic rule prescribing communal ownership of land and redistribution of surplus grain A system of completely free trade with no tariffs, quotas, or government interference in commerce or manufacturing
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Why did England and France enter overseas exploration and colonization later than Spain and Portugal?
Hint: Consider what was happening within England and France in the late 1400s, such as dynastic wars, while Spain and Portugal were centralizing power.
Internal conflicts delayed English and French ventures, so they focused on North Atlantic fishing and colonization once Spain and Portugal had secured richer claims England and France sent the very first transatlantic voyages, decades before Columbus reached the Americas The Treaty of Tordesillas legally barred England and France from all ocean travel until 1750 England and France had no interest in overseas trade or colonies until the twentieth century
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Early encounters between Europeans and Indigenous peoples in the Americas varied widely by region and empire. Which statement best reflects that variety of outcomes?
Hint: Compare, for example, French trading partnerships in North America with the rapid Spanish conquest of the Aztec and Inca empires.
Disease had no significant role in early contact, since conquest depended entirely on superior European weapons Some encounters involved trade and shifting alliances, others involved rapid conquest of large empires, and nearly all were shaped by the catastrophic and unplanned spread of Old World diseases Indigenous peoples uniformly welcomed European rule and voluntarily adopted European religion and government within a decade Every European power used the exact same military strategy and achieved identical results across all of the Americas
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