#Christopher columbus exploration series

Those who benefited most were merchants who sat astride the great overland trade routes, especially the merchants of the Italian city-states of Genoa, Venice and Florence. The Orient became a magnet to traders, and exotic products and wealth flowed into Europe. Marco Polo’s famous journey to Cathay signaled Europe’s “discovery” of Chinese and Islamic civilizations. A Faster Route to the Eastīut the most powerful inducement to exploration was trade.

Bigger, faster ships and the invention of navigational devices such as the astrolabe and sextant made extended voyages possible.Ī nautical map representing Marco Polo with a caravan on the way to Cathay. Portugal, Spain, France and England were transformed from small territories into nation-states with centralized authority in the hands of monarchs who were able to direct and finance overseas exploration.Īs these religious and political changes were occurring, technological innovations in navigation set the stage for exploration. With the decline of the political power and wealth of the Catholic Church, a few rulers gradually solidified their power. Thus, the rise of Protestantism and the Counter-Reformation, along with the Renaissance, helped foster individualism and create a climate favorable to exploration.Īt the same time, political centralization ended much of the squabbling and fighting among rival noble families and regions that had characterized the Middle Ages. In the Renaissance, artists and writers such as Galileo, Machiavelli and Michelangelo adopted a view of life that stressed humans’ ability to change and control the world. Protestantism emphasized a personal relationship between each individual and God without the need for intercession by the institutional church. The Protestant Reformation and the Catholic Church’s response in the Counter-Reformation marked the end of several centuries of gradual erosion of the power of the Catholic Church as well as the climax of internal attempts to reform the Church. These developments included the Protestant Reformation and the subsequent Catholic Counter-Reformation, the Renaissance, the unification of small states into larger ones with centralized political power, the emergence of new technology in navigation and shipbuilding and the establishment of overland trade with the East and the accompanying transformation of the medieval economy.

#Christopher columbus exploration series

The Reformation, the Renaissance and New Trade Routesīetween 10, a series of interconnected developments occurred in Europe that provided the impetus for the exploration and subsequent colonization of America. Trade continued to revolve around the Mediterranean Sea, as it had for hundreds of years. Europeans may have been intrigued by the stories of the feared Vikings’ discovery of a “new world,” but they lacked the resources or the will to follow their path of exploration. Europe, however, was made up of many small principalities whose concerns were mainly local. Inexplicably, Vineland was abandoned after only a few years.ĭid you know? Explorer Henry Hudson died when his crew mutinied and left Hudson, his son and seven crewmembers adrift in a small open boat in the Hudson Bay.Īlthough the Vikings never returned to America, other Europeans came to know of their accomplishments. There they established a colony named Vineland (meaning fertile region) and from that base sailed along the coast of North America, observing the flora, fauna and native peoples. when the Vikings sailed from the British Isles to Greenland, established a colony and then moved on to Labrador, the Baffin Islands and finally Newfoundland. The first attempt by Europeans to colonize the New World occurred around 1000 A.D.