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The Black Death was a plague that originated in China. This plague wiped out 1/3 of Europe's population. China had 120 million people, but after the plague there were only 65 million. This deadly disease was spread by rats. It eventually helped reorganize the social class in Europe which eventually caused a Renaissance.
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The first guns appeared in Europe. Gunpowered came form China but the Europeans developed a more advanced weapon. Europeans brought these guns over to the Americas where they successfully defeated the Aztec's and Incas, who didn't have guns. The were the most advanced weapon of that time.
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The caravels are built. These are small, fast, ships that originated from Asia. They sat high in the water and used by explorers. The caravels were the first ships that entered the Atlantic Ocean by rounding the Cape of Good Hope, in Africa.
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Moslem Turks capture the Christian city of Constanitnople. Some believe that this event started the Renaissance. The Genoese put their finacial support behind Portuguese efforts to find a new route to Asia. Portuguese therefore supported many explores in their voyages because they had money and wanted to trade with India.
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Columbus, supported by Spain, discovers the West Indies in North America. He believes that he found India and calls the native people "Indians". He keeps a journal and records his observations. The Indians believe that the men are gods.
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Vasco da Gama was a navigator from Portugal. He reached India by rounding the tip of Africa from 1497-1498. He also founded colonies in Africa. He was the first to create the quickest route from Europe to India and made a trade route between them possible.
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Amerigo Vespucci was an Italian explorer. He traveled along the coast of South America and decides it is a new continent and realizes that the Americas are seperate from Asia. He then maps the coast. Later, the Americas were named after him.
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Vasco Nunez De Balboa was a spanish exlporer. He crossed the Isthmus of Panama. He is the first to see the Pacific Ocean and Ponce de Leon lands in Flordia. He founded the settlement of Santa María la Antigua del Darién in present-day Colombia in 1510, which was the first permanent European settlement on the mainland of the Americas
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Smallpox was a disease brought by Europeans to the Americas. This highly contagious, often deadly diseas caused thousands of tiny sores all over the body. It was brought over to the New World by accident and because the Native Americans were not immune, many of them died. It was the first disease to be prevented by vaccination by Edward Jenner in 1796, more than 200 years later.
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In 1521, the Aztec Empire is conquered by Spanish forces. The capital of New Spain (Mexico City) is built on the ruins of Tenochitlan which was the cpital city of the Aztec's. The Aztec temple was filled with gold. This Spanish conquest encouraged more spaniards to explore other parts of South America.
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The last remaining of Magellan's five ships, with its crew of seventeen men returns to Spain. He sailed from Atlantic Ocean and was the first to cross the Pacific Ocean. Magellan was the first portugese that completed the first cirumnavigation. He unfortunately died in Battle of Mactan and never saw Portugual again.
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Atahualpa, emperor of the Incas, is hanged. His Inca empire was conquered by the Spanish conquistador Franciso Pizarro. They had guns, germs, and steel; things that the Incas didn't have. The spaniards used their suprize tactics, smallpox germs, and decite, to capture the emperor, fool him, and cause choas in the empire. The Spanish conquerors used the captured Incas as slaves to mine out the gold.
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Sir Francis Drake is a famous English explorer and adventurer. From 1577-1580 Drake becomes the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe. He looted Spanish New World settlements. Drake was also personally responsible for destroying much of the Spanish Navy as well as the Portuguese School of Naviation founded by Prince Henry the Navigator.
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Dutch explorers discover Australia. At this time they believed that they had found the last continent, except Antartica. They also discovery that the world is round. The people living in Australia behave differently from the Englishmen. Later, they brought "cargo" over and tried to convert the native people living there into more "civilized" living.
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In 1607 the first periminent settlement was developed by the English. It was named Jamestown and is located in Virginia. Before Jamestown there were several attempts of settlement but they all failed including the Lost Colony of Roanoke. Jamestown is still present today.
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I chose these fifteen events for several reasons. While they were all important to exploration they were also important in encouarging new explorers and new technology. Disease and war reshuffled the social class and started a new time era, the Renaissance. Many famous explorers are known because of Columbus' voyage in hopes to find a route to India, but in fact he truely did find a new world. Guns, germs, and caravels all played an important part in conquering new native people.
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Many Europeans that came over to the Americas explored and found new areas and settled into colonies forming Roanoke and later Jamestown.
