01:506:101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Shining Path, Bartolomeu Dias, French Corsairs
Document Summary
Ships had begun to use the atlantic early (vikings to iceland, venetian flanders galleys), but the 15th century. The opening of the atlantic innovations made it a highway: improvements in shipbuilding (including the stern rudder), new types of rigging and sails (lateen), and the use of the mariner"s compass. Europe had long imported key asian commodities at very high prices --largely due to the costs of overland transportation to such key sites as constantinople, beirut, and alexandria. Fabrics of silk and cotton, porcelains, fine steel, sugar, and above all, spices. pp. Prince henry, called "the navigator," established a school at. Sages as a center for geographers, cartographers, mathematicians, ship captains and pilots. He sponsored voyages down the coast of africa and far enough into the atlantic to discover the azores and canary islands. African exploration had brought the portuguese wealth from gold, ivory and slaves --exciting the envy of spain. Bartolomeu dias in 1488 reached the cape of.