• After centuries of isolation in Western Europe, the Crusades and the travels of Marco Polo created an interest in Asia for its valuable spices and silks. Trade with Asia grew, and several Italian city-states became wealthy and powerful.

• Italy’s merchant class became interested in artistic and intellectual discovery. It led Europe into an era known as the Renaissance. This was a time of exploration and discovery.

• Improvements in technology—the compass, better maps, the astrolabe, and better ships—made longer ocean voyages possible.

• Three wealthy trading empires rose and fell in western Africa: Ghana, Mali, and the Songhai Empire. These empires grew wealthy on the trade of salt and gold. Their trade with Muslim North Africa spread Islam into western Africa.

Section 2: Early Exploration

• The Portuguese, led by Henry the Navigator, set the stage for an era of exploration. Portuguese explorers found a sea route to India by sailing around Africa. They set up a thriving trade with India for spices, porcelain, and other valuable cargo.

• Christopher Columbus got support from Queen Isabella of Spain to try to find a sea route to Asia by traveling west. In 1492 Columbus and his crew set out from Spain in three ships. They landed in what they thought were the Indies. It was actually a Caribbean island off the coast of North America.

• Columbus’s success led to more exploration of the Americas by Europeans. In 1522 Ferdinand Magellan’s crew succeeded in circumnavigating the globe.

• The explorations of the 1400s and 1500s were not the first in the Americas. Ruins in northeastern Canada show that around the year A.D. 1000, Vikings (Norsemen) reached North America. Their voyages were not well-known in Europe, however.

Section 3: Spain in America

• Spanish explorers conquered the Aztec Empire in Mexico and the Inca Empire in Peru. They shipped huge quantities of gold back to Spain.

• The Spanish also explored what is today Florida and the southeastern and southwestern United States. These explorers mostly sought gold and other riches.

• The Spanish set up three types of settlements in the Americas: presidios, or forts; pueblos, or towns; and missions, or religious communities. There were also plantations. Spanish society had a clear class system. People born in Spain were at the top; Native Americans and enslaved Africans were at the bottom.

Section 4: Competing for Colonies

• The Reformation in Europe led to rivalries between Catholics and Protestants. This rivalry spread to the Americas. Both Catholics and Protestants hoped to spread their faith among Native Americans.

• The search for gold and the search for a Northwest Passage to Asia led to much exploration. The St. Lawrence River, Hudson Bay, and the Mississippi River were all explored in this way.

• The French were more respectful of the Native Americans than other Europeans who explored the Americas. They traded with them and learned their languages.

• In 1623, the Dutch set up the colony of New Netherland in North America. The center of the new colony was New Amsterdam, located on the tip of Manhattan Island.

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