1. maritime community of skilled navigators
   • Bristol fishermen, Cabot from Venice, Verranzano from Genoa
   • had knowledge of Plato's Antilia, Vikings, St. Brendan, Marco Polo, Ptolemy
   • made portulan charts, learned of Atlantic gyre
   • joined with Martin and Vincente Pinzon at Palos
2. Enterprise of the Indies
   • Ferdinand and Isabella unified Spain, expelled Moors, Inquisition
   • Franciscan monks, banker Luis de Santangel
   • Edict of Expulsion March 31; last Jews left Aug. 2
   • Spanish-born Pope Alexander VI line of demarcation - Tordesillas
   • 4 voyages made - also Ojeda, de Lepe, Cabral
3. printing press
   • Santangel letter published 1493, Peter Martyr
   • Vespucci, Waldseemuller, Mercator
4. Columbian Exchange
   • from Europe: sugar, pig, smallpox
   • from America: potato, tobacco, quinine
   • Slave trade begins
5. discovered pathway
   • Magellan, Urdaneta, Verranzano
6. colonization
   • La Navidad, Santo Domingo
   • Balboa to Panama, de Leon to Florida 1513
   • conquistadores and missionaries
   • Hernando de Soto to the Miss. R. 1541
   • Juan de Onate to New Mexico 1598
   • missions, encomiendas, ranchos

Links:

• Columbus from Yahoo Explorers direcory
• Columbus letter Feb. 15, 1493, to Santangel
• Hernando de Soto in the New World
• Waldsemuller Map That Named America from NYT, Sept. 5, 2001
• Icelander Recreates Eriksson Voyage from AP, June 17, 2000
• Maps: South America and Bering bridge and western US T B and Europe map T M B and Early voyages T M B and Atlantic gyre and Spain and Behaime globe cu and 1st landing p14 and Explorers p14 and GOES8 infrared