The Age of Exploration: 1490-1640

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The Age of Exploration1490-1640
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Important Dates

• 1513 Juan Ponce de Léon lands on the Florida
  peninsula.
• 1515 Vasco Núñez de Balboa reaches the Pacific
  Ocean.
• 1540 Francisco Vázquez de Coronado explores the
  Southwest.

• 1586 English colony at Roanoke Island disappears
  (the Lost Colony).
• 1590 Iroquois Confederacy established to stop
  warfare among the Five Nations.
• 1607Jamestown Settlement

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Before the Explorers

• North Americasparsely populated by several
  hundred Native American tribes
• Tribes were not encountered simultaneously
• Tribes differed in language, government, social
  organization, customs, housing, and methods of
  survival

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(No Transcript)
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Why They Explored

• Greed
• Curiosity
• Sense of Adventure

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Captain John Smith

• 1607Established the first permanent English
  settlement in North
• America (Jamestown)
• 1608-1609served as president of the Virginia
  Colony
• 1624wrote The General History of Virginia

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Captain John Smith

• Led the explorations along the rivers in Virginia
  and the Chesapeake Bay
• Sailed with Christopher Newport
• Noted for being an adventurer, poet, mapmaker,
  and egotist.
• And for his association with Pocahontas and the
  Powhatan Confederacy

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Map of Virginia1612
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The Chesapeake BayPresent
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Garcia Lopez de Cardenas

• A Spanish conquistador of present New Mexico
• 1540 Commanded to locate a river
• 20 days later Found the river but could not
  reach itWHY NOT?
• They were standing on the South Rim of the Grand
  Canyon
• Several days later forced to return because of
  dehydration
• Considered the first European to see and describe
  the Grand Canyon

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The North Rim of the Grand Canyon
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Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca

• Second in Command for the Narvaez expedition in
  Spanish Florida
• 1528landed in Tampa Bay
• Lead 400-man expedition to Texas
• Encounter hostile natives, illness, and starvation

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Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca

• Set sail for Mexico in five flimsy boats
• Only 60 reach the Texas shore
• Only 4 survivors reach Mexico (8 years later)
• Records his experiences in La Relacion.

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Narrative Accounttells the story of real-life
events

• Narrative Nonfiction
• Tells about real people, places, objects and
  events
• Similar to autobiographies, biographies,
  journals, and diaries

• Exploration Narrative
• Records information about the writers own
  travels to an unfamiliar place
• Journal
• Records daily events and personal observations