Page 136 - Key to Social Studies 6

The Explorers Christopher Columbus

• An Italian sailor named Christopher Columbus thought that if he sailed to the west he would nd a way
Ibn Battuta
to Asia by circling around the world.
Muhammad Ibn Battuta was a Moroccan scholar and explorer who went on an exploration journey at the

age of 21 in 1325 C.E. He traveled for 30 years and discovered North and West Africa, Southern and • Columbus searched for someone to fund his journey. Finally, he convinced King Ferdinand and Queen
Eastern Europe, Asia, and more. Isabella of Spain to support him nancially.

The Portuguese Explorers • The king and the queen provided supplies and approximately 120 men for his expedition, or a journey

The Portuguese were the rst civilization to organize widespread exploration of the world. By the end of organized with the intent of searching for something.

the fteenth century C.E., they had succeeded in discovering new rivers, islands, and a sea route from • In 1492 C.E., he sailed with his men to the west in search of Asia. After many months, they found a
Portugal to India. Caribbean island that they named “Hispaniola.”

Prince Henry the Navigator • Columbus did not realize that he had reached a newly discovered part of the world. He thought that

The Portuguese Prince Henry the Navigator, son of King John I, brought together astronomers, they had reached India and named the natives of this land “Indians.”

mapmakers, and mathematicians to study the stars and develop ocean navigation methods, or the act • Columbus made three journeys to the island during his life without realizing that the land was not

or science of nding a way from one place to another, to search for an overseas route to India. actually a part of India and was a new land to European explorers.

Bartolomeu Dias Amerigo Vespucci

Bartolomeu Dias, another Portuguese explorer, was the rst explorer to reach Southern Africa in 1487 C.E. • Amerigo Vespucci was the rst to realize that North and South America were not a part of Asia, unlike

The southern tip of Africa became known as the “Cape of Good Hope.” A cape landform is a very large Columbus who always believed that they were. Amerigo made the rst landfall on South America.

piece of land that extends into the sea. • In 1499 C.E., he sailed with a eet of Spanish ships from the Ganges to the New World, North and South

Vasco da Gama America, and explored along the coast of Brazil and the Amazon River.

Following Bartolomeu Dias was Vasco da Gama, a Portuguese explorer and the rst person to sail around • Amerigo’s writings about the New World were more popular than those of Columbus. That is the reason

the southern tip of Africa and all the way to India. why the New World was named after him in 1507 C.E.

Treaty of Tordesillas

Cape of Good Hope, • During this time, the Spanish and Portuguese were the main world explorers.
South Africa
• They agreed together in 1494 C.E. to draw a line on the

map dividing the world into halves. This line was known Line of Demarcation

as the Line of Demarcation which is a borderline that Controlled by Portugal

shows the limits of or divides something. They signed a Controlled by
the Spanish
treaty together stating that the eastern half of the world

would be controlled by the Portuguese while the

western half would be controlled by the Spanish. Map showing the Line of Demarcation
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