Age Of Exploration

Why is this era called The Age of Exploration?

This period in time is called the Age of exploration because this is when Europeans began exploring the world by sea, searching for new trading routes, goods, getting the spices of Asia and making money. The Europeans also wanted to learn more about the world and claim the unclaimed countries before their rivals.

The Age of exploration started in the early 15th century and ended in the early 17th century due to technological advancement and the increased knowledge of the world.

There were many explorations during this time. Some of the most documented include Captain James Cook’s three voyages where he attempted to measure the transit of Venus and find the Great Southern Continent. Christopher

Columbus voyage tin 1492 discovered the New World of the Americans. Ferdinand Magellan discovered many new trading routes. There were many, many more explorations which is why it was called the era of exploration.
This period of time was sometimes referred to by other names, including the Era of Exploration and the Age of Discovery.

Why did people explore during this time?
During this era people wanted to explore because parts of the world were still undiscovered and unclaimed. There was not much information about the world or many maps that were accurate. They explored to find new information about the world.
In those times information was limited, there were only theories about how big the world was and what shape it was. The theory that the world was flat was understood to be the truth. Exploration was not only to claim and explore new lands, but also to but to learn more about the earth.
People explored looking for new lands to claim for their countries. The already well known countries were starting to become overcrowded .If new countries were discovered they would bring wealth , resources and more power to those countries/governments and royalty who claimed them. Curiosity about the world was growing bigger and people wanted to know more.
Money was another reason. If the explores were successful in their exploration and found a new food or resource such as some explorers did in their discovery of the spices of Asia this would bring in a lot of money. The newly found trading partner plus the benefit of new trading routes and a new resource to sell led to the ability to accumulate much newfound wealth.

What was the consequences of that decision?
The consequences of the decision to explore then were that:
• Mankind’s geographical knowledge of the world expanded tremendously during this time
• New trade routes were opened up causing the world economy to expand
• European countries established many colonies giving Europe wealth
• The decision of doing all the major exploration in the same period of time meant that the exploring was the over in one large time frame.
• Many Important discoveries were made including botany where various new plants were found, trade partners and spices.
• If the Europeans decided to explore earlier we may be more ahead of where we are now. Trade would have been introduce much earlier and cultural conflict would have been long since forgotten.
• It caused many wars as governments and kingdoms fought over who would own or occupy the newly discovered lands and continents. It brought on an era of many wars and battles over this ownership.

Why did royalty and governments fund these journeys?

Many of the famous explorers we know today lacked the money needed for ships, supplies like food, clean water and other key recourses for survival .Crews also had to be paid so Captains turned to their respected governments, Kings or countries for backing.

There were many reasons why the governments and royals funded the explorations. For Christopher Columbus, he asked the Kings of Portugal, France and England to fund his journey. All denied his request. After ten years of efforts he finally got an answer from King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain, they agreed to fund his exploration in hopes of bringing wealth for themselves and their large kingdom.

As well as accumulating wealth, Royals and governments funded exploration to take unclaimed land for their own and to gather more information about the world. For Captain James Cook, he had two reasons why the Royal Geographic and British admiralty funded him. The first was because Captain Cook was said to have found the Great Southern Continent and claim it for Britain, the second was to record the transit of Venus which would help their understanding of the world

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QUEEN ISABELLA

How was it decided who would lead the expedition?
In some cases it was not decided who would lead the expedition, the explorer himself would approach possible funders and ask for the money to be able to explore and to lead the expedition. Christopher Columbus did this.
When the government or royal leaders set about to fund an expedition they would usually have one person in mind that they already knew. They would only choose a person that fitted the criteria so the person best suited candidate would lead the expedition. A man was the only one that could be the leader of the expedition.
For each different exploration there was a different criteria to fill but all somewhat similar. For Captain Cook’s voyages they needed someone with the qualities of high experience in astronomy and exploring and navigating easily in unknown seas.
Ferdinand Magellan’s expedition needed someone who could navigate with ease in unknown areas with experience in botany and spices because he was sent out to find the spices of Asia. All the explorers in the Age of Exploration had to be experienced cartographers to record and adjust new maps.
Special qualities are needed for exploration. Experience in exploration is the main one. Every explorer had qualities suited to their type of exploration. All of them had to have the ability to lead and stay strong under pressure which are very good qualities.

What had to be considered when planning the expedition?
Many things had to be considered. How much food and clean water would you need to take? , what equipment would you need? You have to consider how long it will take for the explorer to get to land or if they will get to land.
They had to consider the disease scurvy, what type of people and skill set would be needed for the expedition? They needed Scientists to help with information and new discoveries, artists to draw the new discoveries and the ships and medical personal to look after the captain and crew. A strong and good crew was very important. Without a crew the ship could not sail,
What people and animals may be found at this new place? Would they become allies or rivals? How many people would be able to come on the voyage? How much money will it all cost?
They had to consider the weather and the risk of storm and destruction of the boat, if the captain died in mid exploration who would take his place?

Why did this have to be considered?
All of these things had to be considered because if you did not the chance of the expedition failing would be greater.
The funders needed to know how much money would be needed and the cost of equipment and supplies. The reason why they considered so many things was for information and to up their chance of success.
Without enough information the explorers wouldn’t know what to do, they might not have enough food or equipment. More safety and less risk for in the expedition was important. Most founders looked on their funding as an investment. Prudent planning meant more chance of a monetary return if the ship was successful.

Where else have people tried to explore in more modern times?
One of the more recent explorations of modern time is that of space exploration, in fact we have only just begun exploring it.
One of the most famous successful space exploration was the one to the moon. Neil Armstrong landed on the moon on July 20 1969. On the way to the moon the astronauts saw earth from space for the first time and this changed how people understood the earth and the universe. The astronaut’s showed that earth was small and fragile compared to the other planets in the universe.
The reason for space exploration is the curiosity to learn more about where we live and what’s around us. There is a possibility we may be able to inhabit a new planet as our science knowledge improves.

The exploration of Antarctica after World War 1 is also a quite recent exploration.

U.S explorer Richard E. Byrd who was one of the more successful explores managing to coordinate radios, tractors, air transport and many more important equipment for the exploration. On his first exploration which started on the 29 of November 1929 his main way of exploring was by airplane and discovered the Marie Byrd Land in Antarctica. After completion of his first expedition he started a second one from 1933 to 1935 and successfully competed his exploration.

There were many explorations in Antarctica run by Wilkins in 1929 to 1930, a Norwegian captain, Hjalmar Riiser-Larsen, explored 1929 to 1930 on the coast of East Antarctica from Enderby Land to Coats Land. The area was later claimed by Norway as Queen Maud Land. In November 1935, U.S. explorer Lincoln Ellsworth made the first transantarctic flight, from Dundee Island at the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula to the Bay of Whales. The British Graham Land Expedition explored the Antarctic Peninsula by sea, air, and dog team from 1935 to

1937.
They choose to explore Antarctica because it was one of the few places left on earth that had not been fully explored and not all of it was claimed. They explored through curiosity in what was there. What animals were there, would there be important resources there? Exploring there answered these questions.