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Geoffery Chaucer, writes a book that tells how to construct and use and astrolabe. An astrolabe is and instrument for navigating by the stars. This instrument greatly helps sailors navagate. Geoffery Chaucer alo wrote the "Canterbury Tales."
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In the second centruy, the geographer Ptolomey drew a map of the world. It had been lost but was now rediscovered. It becomes the best existing map of the world. Ptolomey's map makes Columbus believe that Asia can be reached by sailing west from Europe.
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Prince Henry the Navigator organizes a School of Navigation. He also organized a base for exploration on Cape St. Vincent in Portugal. Henry is called the Navigatior because he patronized and encouraged exploration. He sent explores to find a way to the Indian Ocean.
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Bartholomeu Dias reaches the southern tip of Africa. He was the first European to do so. He called the southern tip of Africa the Cape of Good Hope. Although he did not sail around it into the Indian Ocean he opened the way for others.
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Columbus discovers the West Indies in the New World. He mistakes them for the East Indies. This was because he miscaluculated the sizes of Asia and the Pacific Ocean. He learns that compasses change direction slightly as the longitude changes.
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The Treaty of Tordesillas is signed. It divides the world's undiscovered lands between Spain and Portugal. The divinding line was along a meridian 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde islands. This line of demarcation was about halfway between the Cape Verde Islands and the islands discovered by Christopher Columbus on his first voyage.
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Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama reaches India. He used the route around the Cape of Good Hope. He went to India in order to take over the trade routes from the Muslims. To get rid of their competition, he used his ship's guns.
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Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama reaches India. He used the route around the Cape of Good Hope. He went to India in order to take over the trade routes from the Muslims. To get rid of their competition, he used his ship's guns.
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Amerigo Vespucchi explores along the coat of South Africa. He decides it is not part of Asia. It was a new continent. He was the first to figure out Columbus discovered a new world.
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A new map of the world is made. It includes the newly discovered continents. The name "America" is used for them in honor of Amerigo Vespucci. This was because he was the one who figured out they were new continents.
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Balboa crosses the Isthmus of Panama. He descovers the Pacific Ocean. Balboa becomes the first European to see it. Ponce de Leon lands in Florida.
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Europeasn bring smallpox to the Americas. The Native Americans have never had any contact with this kind of sickness. They have absoultly no immunity to it like the Europeans do. Smallpox begins to wipe out the native American populations.
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Ferdinand Magellan leaves Spain. He hopes to find a "southwestern passage" to Asia. By going around the southern tip of South America, he hopes to get to Asia. Hernan Cortez enters the Aztec Capital of Tenochitlan to meet with the Aztec emperor.
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The fall of the Aztec Empire to Spainsh forces. The Spainish leader was Hernado Cortez. The capital of New Spain is built on the ruins of Tenochitlan. This later becomes Mexico City.
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The last reminents of Magellan's five ships arive back in Spain. Of the crew only 17 men remained. Magellan himself did not make it back because he was killed by natives in the Phillipeans. This was the first circumnavigation of the world.
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Atahualpa, emperor of the Incas, is hanged by the Spainish conqueror Pizzaro. Pizzaro had been able to capture the emperor in a suprise attack and only 100 conquistatdors. Spain had conqured the Inca empire. A smallpox epidemic and civil war had already been destroing the Incas which was good for Spain.
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new continent, it opened oppertunities for other explores to descover new things so it effected all of exploration and it was a major break thourgh.
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I chose these fifteen events in exploration over the others because they were the most relavent to the whole of exploration. Some, like the the death of Colombus, do not have a large impact on the rest of exploration. These would really matter if you were doing a timeling of a singld or a coulple explorers. The ones I picked are major events or dicoveries or inventions that greatly effected exploration. Like the discovery of the New World. When it was descovered and descovered to be a new
