In my history class this year, we have been learning about early exploration. My dad thought it would be a good idea for me to write a blog about the subject. Normally, I couldn't care less about early exploration. Though my dad made me write a blog about what I’m learning. So here are some things that I’m learning in history.
The first thing I’m going to talk about is the growth of trade. Wealthy people in Europe would buy large amounts of arab and asian spices from the Italians. The Italians got it from nomads that would visit Europe every year. The nomads bought the spices from arab traders. Naturally, the price to went up every time a new group got it from another. Therefor, the wealthier Europeans were paying more money that what it was actually worth. Also, the time and process to buy and receive the said spices took a long time. The people wanted a more spices, cheaper ways of buying them, and faster deliveries. So, people started to hire sailors and captains to go around the tip of asia and buy the spices in large amounts and bring them back. This way, it took not nearly as long as the land rout.
The second thing that I’m going to talk about is better maps and instruments. Most of the early maps that sailors used were not accurate. This resulted of many ships wrecking in the middle of the night and many ships that would get lost at sea. When crossing a large body of water, mostly, ships were given very general statements. An example is, “Go East until you reach land” kind of a thing. Also, many ships that were ‘lost’ at sea, generally wrecked because parts of the ship would break or come clean off. Because of this, countries wanted to make bigger ships that could carry more people and could carry more supplies. After around ten years of trying new ship designs, Britain decided on the Caravel. The caravel had a triangular sail and a more stern rudder. This meant that it could go faster, further and go through rough storms.
The third and final thing that I will be talking about is, the rising of powerful nations. Before the 1400’s, many times, there was a local ruler. He would employ the people in the land that he controlled and they would work for him, then get paid. After the 1400’s, Monarchs and strict governments started to overthrow the local rulers and made them farmers and whatever else. The central government and monarchs also built bigger towns and made it to where you could go to a store and buy food for the week or month depending where you lived. The monarchs putr in national laws, courts, taxes, and armies. The reason behind all of this change was to make their countries more wealthy and stronger. Another reason behind this change was so they could have more power over their people.
Thanks for reading and make sure to check out my other blogs!