“Guns, Germs, and Steel” - Europe and the Age of Exploration (1300-1600)
Questions
1. Why did Europeans lead the Era of Exploration?
2. Why did the Era of Exploration occur when it did?
3. How did the Era of Exploration affect the world?
Outline
I. Christopher Columbus
II. Why them?
1. Racial Superiority? Climate? Currents?
2. Guns, Germs, and Steel?
III. Why then?
1. Rise of modern bureaucracies
2. Rise of Large Nations
A. Money, Prestige, Religion
3. New Technologies
A. Compass, Astrolabe, Better Ships
IV. 1492: Columbus arrives in the New World (Top 25: #4)
1. Did Columbus commit genocide?
V. Other nations follow Columbus’ lead
VI. Impact of the age of exploration
1. On Europe
2. On Africa
3. On North America
1300s
• William Wallace (aka Braveheart) executed (1305)
• Ottoman Empire expands dramatically (1320s)
• New Testament organized into chapters (1328)
• Bubonic plague emerges in Europe (1330s)
• Hundred Years’ War begins (1337)
• Disputes result in two competing popes (1378)
• Peasant revolt in England (1381)
1400s
1500s
• Joan of Arc defeats the English at Orleans (1429)
• Medicis begin to rule European banking (1430s)
• Eastern Roman Empire falls (1453)
• The Hundred Years’ War ends after 116 years (1453)
• Portugal emerges as world power (1450s)
• War of the Roses in England (1461)
• Leonardo da Vinci, age 28, becomes famous (1480)
• First slaves arrive in the Americas (1501)
• Catholics, Protestants split (1517)
• Magellan circumnavigates the world (1522)
• Spanish Inquisition at its height (1540s)
• Copernicus says Earth revolves around sun (1543)
• England emerges as a world power (1570s), defeats
the Spanish Armada (1588)