Age of Discovery

Examples of Age of Discovery in the following topics:

• Europe's Early Trade Links

  • A prelude to the Age of Discovery was a series of European expeditions crossing Eurasia by land in the late Middle Ages undertaken by a number of explorers, including Marco Polo, who left behind the most detailed and inspiring record of his travels across Asia.  
  • A prelude to the Age of Discovery was a series of European expeditions crossing Eurasia by land in the late Middle Ages.
  • The geographical exploration of the late Middle Ages eventually led to what today is known as the Age of Discovery:  a loosely defined European historical period from the 15th century to the 18th century that witnessed extensive overseas exploration emerged as a powerful factor in European culture and globalization.
  • Many lands previously unknown to Europeans were discovered during this period, though most were already inhabited and from the perspective of non-Europeans, the period was not that of discovery but invasion and the arrival of settlers from a previously unknown continent.
  • Recall the exploration of Eurasia in the Middle Ages by Marco Polo, which was a prelude to the advent of the Age of Discovery in the 15th Century

• The Expansion of Europe

  • The Age of Discovery, also known as the Age of Exploration and the Great Navigations, was a period in European history from the early 15th century to the early 17th century.
  • Historians often refer to the Age of Discovery to mean the pioneering period of the Portuguese and Spanish long-distance maritime travels in search of alternative trade routes to the Indies.
  • While a great deal of Western history centers on Europeans as the earliest and most advanced explorers of the world, growing evidence suggests extensive transoceanic travel had been well underway long before the European Age of Discovery.
  • The fall of the Roman Empire (476 CE) and the beginning of the European Renaissance in the late 14th century roughly bookend the period known as the Middle Ages.
  • This map illustrates the main travels of the Age of Discovery, from 1482-1524.

• Mediterranean Trade and European Expansion

  • The prelude to the Age of Discovery was a series of European expeditions crossing Eurasia by land in the late Middle Ages.
  • A series of Europeans took advantage of these to explore eastwards.
  • The economic growth of Europe around the year 1000, together with the lack of safety on the mainland trading routes, eased the development of major commercial routes along the coast of the Mediterranean.
  • Maritime Republics of Venice, Genoa, Amalfi, Pisa, and the Republic of Ragusa developed their own empires on the Mediterranean shores.
  • Spices were among the most expensive and desired products of the Middle Ages, used in medieval medicine, religious rituals, cosmetics, and perfumery, as well as for food additives and preservatives.

• The Golden Age of India

  • The prosperity of the Gupta Empire produced a golden age of cultural and scientific advancements.
  • This period became known as the Golden Age of India because it was marked by extensive inventions and discoveries in science, technology, engineering, art, dialectic, literature, logic, mathematics, astronomy, religion, and philosophy that crystallized elements of what is generally considered Hindu culture.
  • Other scholars of the Golden Age helped create the first Indian numeral systems with a base of 10.
  • The cultural creativity of the Golden Age of India produced magnificent architecture, including palaces and temples, as well as sculptures and paintings of the highest quality.
  • The Golden Age of India produced many temples, decorated with various sculptures and paintings, such as the Dashavatara Temple, also known as the Vishnu Temple, in central India.

• The Stone Age

  • The Stone Age is the first of the three-age system of archaeology, which divides human technological prehistory into three periods: the Stone Age, Bronze Age, and Iron Age.
  • The Stone Age lasted roughly 3.4 million years, from 30,000 BC to about 3,000 BC, and ended with the advent of metalworking.
  • The art of the Stone Age represents the first accomplishments in human creativity, preceding the invention of writing.
  • Archaeological discoveries across a broad swath of Europe (especially Southern France, like those at Lascaux ; Northern Spain; and Swabia, in Germany) include over two hundred caves with spectacular paintings, drawings, and sculptures that are among the earliest undisputed examples of representational image-making.
  • Create a timeline of the Paleolithic, Mesolithic, and Neolithic Periods of the Stone Age, giving a brief description of the art from each period.

• Art of the Bronze Age

  • The Bronze Age saw the birth of civilization and the development of advanced cultures in Europe, the Near East, and East Asia.
  • The Bronze Age is part of the three-age system of archaeology, which divides human technological prehistory into three periods: the Stone Age, Bronze Age, and Iron Age.
  • Bronze Age cultures differed in their development of the first writing.
  • The Atlantic Bronze Age was defined by a number of distinct regional centers of metal production, unified by a regular maritime exchange of some of their products.
  • Alloying of copper with zinc or tin to make brass or bronze was practiced soon after the discovery of copper.

• The Discovery of Oil in the Middle East

• The Transformed National Economy

  • The rapid economic growth after the Civil War, driven by many discoveries and inventions, led to the Second Industrial Revolution.
  • The "Gilded Age" of the second half of the 19th century was the epoch of tycoons.
  • The Gilded Age saw the greatest period of economic growth in American history.
  • The end of the Gilded Age coincided with the Panic of 1893, a deep depression that lasted until 1897 and marked a major political realignment in the election of 1896.
  • A chart of real US GNP per capita from 1869 to 1918 (covering the period of the Long Depression and the Gilded Age).

• Art in Western Europe

  • Western Europe was particularly bountiful for archaeological discoveries, such as the Venus figurines, from the Paleolithic.
  • The Paleolithic or Old Stone Age existed from approximately 30,000 BC until 10,000 BC and produced some of the first accomplishments in human creativity.
  • Western Europe was particularly bountiful for archeological discoveries (especially southern France and northern Spain), with numerous caves and open-air sites containing spectacular parietal (cave art) and portable (small sculpture) artworks being found that are among the earliest undisputed examples of image making.
  • Western Europe, especially France, Austria, and Germany are the locations of some of the first discoveries of such figures.
  • Identify and name locations and types of archaeological discoveries in Western Europe dating from the Paleolithic.Age

• The Indus River Valley Civilization

  • Their discovery and excavation in the 19th and 20th centuries provided important archaeological data about ancient cultures.
  • It is considered a Bronze Age society and inhabitants of the ancient Indus River Valley developed new techniques in metallurgy, the science of working with copper, bronze, lead, and tin.
  • The discoveries of Harappa, and the site of its fellow Indus city Mohenjo-daro, were the culmination of work beginning in 1861 with the founding of the Archaeological Survey of India in the British Raj, the common name for British imperial rule over the Indian subcontinent from 1858 through 1947.
  • This prompted an excavation campaign from 1921–22 by Sir John Hubert Marshall, Director-General of the Archaeological Survey of India, which resulted in the discovery of Harappa.
  • Identify the importance of the discovery of the Indus River Valley Civilization