Mr. Kersey.org - Mr. Kersey's Lecture Notes

The Race for Asian Trade Routes: De Gama, Balboa, and Magellan

(Lecture Notes from Mr. Kersey's 8th Grade U.S. History Class)

Many people did not believe Columbus had actually found Asia. One of these people was the king of Portugal.
Vasco da Gama was sent to keep looking for an eastward sea route to Asia.
Da Gama eventually did land in India and met with the people there.
He eventually went back a couple of times and governed a small trading colony there.

The English did happen to notice that they were falling behind in the race for trade routes.
King Henry IIV sent an Italian named John Cabot to look for a westward route to Asia.
Cabot did not find Asia either, but he did find North America and as a result laid claim to most of the coastal area for Britain.
Henry sent Cabot out again to keep looking for Asia, but his ship disappeared at sea.

Amerigo Vespucci was a crew member on a Spanish expedition to South America.
Vespucci wrote letters home about all the great stuff in the New World, as well as some really exaggerated tales of native Americans.
Vespucci’s letters were later published by a mapmaker, who named the new continents America. Soon they were called North and South America after Amerigo Vespucci.

Balboa was a failed farmer in the Caribbean who stowed away on a ship tp South America.
After taking over a colony there, he heard rumors of another ocean on the other side of the mountains.
Balboa set out on an expedition and after a long and treacherous journey laid eyes on the “Southern Ocean,” which would later be renamed the Pacific.

Magellan was a Portuguese sailor who convinced Spain that he could sail west to Asia as Columbus has planned.
With a fleet of 5 ships he set sail and after mistaking a river for a sea route, eventually sailed around the southern tip of South America.
After finding the “Southern Ocean,” it took the three remaining ships 3 months to cross the vast expanse of water.
After landing on the Philipines, Magellan was later killed.
His remaining ships decided to continue west.
After another long sail through unknown a dangerous waters, the remaining ship finally reached Spain again. It took three years, and only 18 men survived out of an original crew of 240.
These men were the first to circumnavigate the earth.

As a result of European exploration and colonization, plants, animals, and diseases were transferred from The Old world to the New World.
This transfer is known as the Colombian Exchange.
The Colombian Exchange had positive and negative effects.
Europeans were introduced to corn, the American tomato, potatoes, as well as cocoa and tobacco. Many of these became popular ingredients in cooking.
Of course, the spread of disease was a negative effect. The Europeans brought small pox and measles with them.
Native Americans, who had no immunity to these diseases died by the hundreds of thousands, and later millions.