Reasons for European Exploration

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Reasons for European Exploration
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Early Navigation Tool
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Would you explore?

• THINK about this
• Christopher Columbus has found new land in 1492
• People are loading ships and youve heard
  exciting tales of mysterious lands across the
  sea.
• WOULD YOU GO? Why?

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Why did Columbus leave?

• What was Columbus looking for?
• All water route west to Asia
• Faster
• Spices, salt, silks, gold

• Why did he want these things?
• No form of currency so he would use them for
  trade, which is to

?
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Columbus 1st Voyage
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Why did Europeans sail across the sea?

• 1. Find a shorter route to Asia
• Look for a Northwest Passage a route through
  North America to get to Asia.
• What is in Asia? spices, gold, TRADE!

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Why did Europeans sail across the sea?

• 2. Seeking to trade make money
• French Dutch wanted to trade FUR
• Dutch started fur trading with
  Native American Indians.
• 3. Spread Christianity / Religion

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Why did Europeans sail across the sea?

• 4. Curiosity
• desire to see new places
• 5. Fame become well-known
• 6. Expanding European Empire
• make Europe even bigger
• 7. Seek gold riches - MONEY

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The Middle PassageSlaves coming to Americas

• Slaves were needed in America to provide labor in
  mines and plantations.
• Europeans began bringing Africans to the Americas
  for slave labor in early 1500s.
• Middle passage long voyage of slave ships from
  Africa to the Americas. (across the Atlantic
  Ocean).

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The Middle Passage

• Estimated around 2 million Africans died during
  the middle passage.
• Harsh conditions on boats.
• Unbearable heat, unbreathable air, disease
  spreading like wildfire.
• Chained together in small areas

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The Middle Passage slave ship
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The Middle Passage slave ship

• treated like cattle during the crossing
• stuffed between decks in spaces too low for
  standing
• heat was often unbearable
• air nearly unbreathable
• chained in pairs, shackled wrist to wrist or
  ankle to ankle
• forced to lie on their backs
• diseases spread like wildfire
• thrown overboard to prevent epidemics
• iron muzzles and whippings used to control slaves
• between one and two million persons died in the
  crossing
• The Middle Passage

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Summary Reasons for Exploring
Reasons for colonizing America