Age+of+exploration

age of explorationmedia type="youtube" key="V4kAWbykxKE" width="425" height="350" Duringthe 1400s and 1500s, many people believed that the world was flat. There were people who believed the world was round, but since no one had sailed around the world, there was no proof for either case. Many maps from the 1400s and 1500s are wonderfully imaginative. They show Europe in the center, surrounded by vast seas with creatures, such as cyclops and mermen, lurking in wait for unsuspecting sailors. Sailors navigated by studying the location of stars. During storms, when clouds blocked the stars, sailors had nothing to guide them. Price Henry,however, believed that with new ship designs and better instruments, exploration could be successful. One of these designs was for a ship called a caravel. A caravel was a long, slender ship with high billowing sails. It was this design that made long exploratory voyages to new lands possible. Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) Christopher Columbus was born in Genoa, Italy, in 1451. In 1453, however, the Turks conquered Constantinople. Because Constantinople was major trade center between Asia and Europe, trade to western Europe was cut off. He became very interested in sailing and mapmaking, and at age fourteen he went to sea. Columbus decided that by sailing west he could find a shorter trade route to the Far East. Columbus had calculated that the trip from Europe to the Indies ( China, Japan, India, and the East Indies) was about 2400 mies long. King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain finally agreed to support the journey. Preparations were made and three ships- the Santa Maria, the Pinta, and the Nina- set sail from Palos, Spain, on Agust 3, 1492. In October the crew was about to force columbus to return to spain when they began to see bits of wood and other sings of land. On October 12, they landed on San Salvaand South MAerica. dor, an island in the Bahamas. Colubus believed the island was part of the Indies, so he name the people living there Indians. Eventually this name was used to refer to all the native people of North