Why explorers explored

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Draw a web like this on Your paper to Record
notes from This PowerPoint
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Why Explorers Explored
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Why explorers explored
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• Why did Europeans explore the world?

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• Some European countries paid for explorations for
  different reasons. Here are just 5 of the reasons
  why those countries explored

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• (1) To find a sea route to the spices of Asia

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Sea Route in Search of Spices

• In the 1400s, there was no refrigeration. To
  prevent meat from spoiling, people drowned their
  meat in salt to preserve and dry it (like beef
  jerky). They also used a lot of spices like
  pepper to cover up the taste of the salted or
  spoiled meat.

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• Unfortunately for Europeans, these spices did not
  grow anywhere in Europe.
• They were only found in Asian
  countries like China, Japan, and India (these
  countries were known together as "The Indies").

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• It was very difficult to get the spices from Asia
  to Europe.
• Spices had to be brought across thousands of
  miles of dangerous mountains and deserts by spice
  traders, with bandits waiting to rob the spice
  caravans.

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• The alternative was to bring the spices by ship,
  but the sea voyage was also dangerous because of
  pirates and storms. Since it was so difficult to
  get spices from Asia to Europe, spices were very
  expensive.

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(2) Gold, Silver, and Precious Stones

• European rulers fought many wars. These wars were
  very expensive, so they needed to find lots of
  gold, silver, and precious stones to pay for
  them. They believed that Asia was loaded with
  gold, silver, and precious stones, so they
  decided to find it and bring it back.

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(3) Expand Knowledge

• In the late 1400s, Europeans did not know much
  about the world. Most of them had never been
  outside of Europe. Although many people thought
  the world was flat, educated Europeans knew that
  it was round. The problem was they had no idea
  how large the world was.

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(4) Larger Empires

• Some European rulers wanted to claim as much land
  as they could. They wanted to take all of the
  natural resources from the newly discovered land
  and use the people that lived there to do their
  work.

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(5) Expand Christianity

• In the late 1400s, the European rulers were very
  religious. They wanted to convert everyone to
  Christianity and looked for ways (and new places)
  to expand their religion.

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Questions

• Name 5 reasons why explorers explored.

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Answer

• (1) For spices
• (2) Gold, silver and precious stones
• (3) To expand knowledge
• (4) They wanted larger empires
• (5) To spread Christianity

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Question

• Why were spices so valuable?

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Answer

• Because there was no refrigeration, spices were
  needed to preserve food as well as disguise the
  taste.

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Question

• Why did explorers need to look somewhere other
  than Europe for spices?

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Answer

• Spices did not grow anywhere in Europe.

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Question

• In the late 1400s, what religion sought to
  convert others in new lands?

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Answer

• Christianity

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Question

• Exploration continues today. Should the United
  States continue to explore space? Why or why not?

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Task

• To complete your notes
• illustrate each of the 5 reasons why explorers
  explored next to the circle in which they are
  written.
• At the bottom of the page, write which one of the
  reasons you believe to be the best reason for
  exploration and why.