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Y205: Exploration, Encounters and Empire 1445–1570

Exploration: Reasons why this was an age of exploration and motives for patronage

  • 3 things to know
  • Unit group 2

Overview

Recall questions on reasons why this was an age of exploration, Renaissance learning and values, trade, religion, technological change, geography of and internal developments in Portugal and Spain, motives for patronage.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Key term

Give two religious motives that drove the early voyages.

Key term

Name three technological changes that made long ocean voyages practicable.

Key term

Why was the spice trade such a powerful motive for seeking a sea route to the East?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    How did Ottoman expansion push Europeans towards ocean voyaging?

    Model answer

    The fall of Constantinople in 1453 and the growth of Ottoman power across the eastern Mediterranean placed the overland spice routes in Muslim hands, so western rulers looked for a sea route to Asia that avoided them altogether.

  2. 2

    Explain how Renaissance learning contributed to the age of exploration.

    Model answer

    The recovery of classical geography, above all Ptolemy, gave navigators a mathematical model of a spherical earth and a grid of latitude and longitude, while humanist curiosity, the hunger for personal fame and the printing of voyage accounts made discovery both possible and prestigious.

  3. 3

    Why was the spice trade such a powerful motive for seeking a sea route to the East?

    Model answer

    Pepper, cloves, nutmeg and cinnamon reached Europe only after passing through Muslim and Venetian middlemen who multiplied the price, so a crown that could buy at source stood to make enormous profits.

  4. 4

    Give two religious motives that drove the early voyages.

    Model answer

    The wish to convert non-Christian peoples and win souls for the Church, and the crusading impulse to outflank Islam, which included the hope of finding the legendary Christian ruler Prester John as an ally.

  5. 5

    Name three technological changes that made long ocean voyages practicable.

    Model answer

    The caravel, with lateen sails and a shallow draught that let it work to windward and explore coasts; the magnetic compass and quadrant or astrolabe for direction and latitude; and better charts, sailing directions and shipboard cannon.

  6. 6

    Why was Portugal so well placed to lead the first phase of exploration?

    Model answer

    It faced the Atlantic, had completed its own reconquest and could not expand by land, had a stable crown and a nobility needing employment, and had already colonised Madeira, the Azores and Cape Verde with the backing of Prince Henry and the wealth of the Order of Christ.

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