THE AGE F EXPLORATION CHAPTER 10: Slavery Big Question: How did the Age of Exploration lead to the development of the slave trade? During the 1600s, enslaved Africans were brought to the Americas to work on the sugar plantations. In this chapter, students will study how trade and exploration led to the conquest and settlement of the Americas. Students will learn about the many European explorers who first arrived in America and their motivations. We will also discuss the.
1. Trade - Europeans had ancient trade links with India, China + the Spice Islands - spices from India + silk from china were two of most valuable commodities in medieval Europe
- but spices + silk were v. expensive as main route to East was over land via the Great Silk Road (merchants travelled in caravans across Asia, journeys took months/years)
- route became increasingly dangerous with growth of Turkish Empire - Muslim Turks were enemy of Christian Europeans + made it v. difficult + even more expensive for European merchants to travel though lands
- this happened to be at same time as increase in population in Europe - bigger demand for spices + silk
- this meant whoever found new, safe + fast route to east would make lot of money
2. Religion - in 15th + 16th century almost all Europeans were Christians - believed followers of all other religions were heathens (worshipped false gods, many felt it was their duty to covert heathers to Christianity
- most ships that went on voyages of discovery carried at least one priest, job was to look after sailors + spread Christianity to any new people discovered on journey
3. Empire Building - many European countries wanted to build empires: wanted to control new lands + exploit natural resources of those lands to increase own wealth
- throughout history, control of foreign lands had seen as sign of nation's strength + wealth
- once Portugal + Spain began collecting colonies + displaying fabulous wealth that came from controlling them, rest of Europe wanted to catch up
- Europeans believed they were superior to people of other continents + had right to rule them
Settling Down
At approximately 100 million to 1 billion years old, planets tend to settle down in their orbits and stars don’t flare up as much. Our own solar system, about 4.5 billion years old, is the model for this idea of planetary 'middle age.' Mandell thinks of our planetary system as about 45 to 50 years old, when scaled down to a human lifetime.
But by studying exoplanets, the planets beyond our solar system, scientists know that our solar system is not the only way a planetary system can look in this comfortable age of life.
The Age Of Exploration Questions
One star that recently became famous for its seven Earth-size rocky planets, TRAPPIST-1, formed somewhere between 5.4 billion and 9.8 billion years ago, safely older than our solar system. TRAPPIST-1, at only about 9 percent the size of our Sun, is an extremely faint M-dwarf star. All of its planets huddle extremely close together — all within the orbit of Mercury. Because the star’s energy output is so low, its farthest planet, TRAPPIST-1h, may be a ball of ice, even though it makes one revolution around its star in less than 19 days. Another planet in this system, called TRAPPIST-1e, is especially similar to Earth in the amount of starlight its surface receives, even though one “year” there is 6.1 days.
Hot Jupiters, about the same size as Jupiter or larger, orbiting much closer to their host stars and experiencing scorching hot temperatures, are nowhere to be found in our solar system. We could have had a hot Jupiter that got swallowed by the Sun early on, but plenty have survived in other systems -- even older ones. Two examples are HAT-P-65b, which scientists calculate to be 5.5 billion years old, and HAT-P-66b, with an estimated age of 4.7 billion years. Other exotic kinds of planets around other stars include 'super-Earths' -- large rocky planets up to 10 times the mass of Earth -- and small gaseous planets called 'mini-Neptunes.'
Q. Will Earth always be able to support life?
A. Probably not
+ EXPANDThe Sun may wipe out life on Earth even before it swells up to reach its red giant phase.
Over the next couple of billion years, the increasing amounts of energy Earth will receive from the aging, expanding Sun will warm its atmosphere. The hotter the atmosphere, the more water vapor it will entrap as water evaporates from Earth’s surface. The Sun’s ultraviolet rays will break this water vapor down into oxygen and hydrogen, a gas light enough to escape.
Chapter 5: The Age Of Exploration Definition
With water escaping into space through this process, the oceans will dry up and the crust will dry out, leaving a desolate, uninhabitable world. As volcanoes continue throwing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, there will be no oceans to swallow it or life forms to store it. This buildup of carbon dioxide causes what is called a 'runaway greenhouse effect,' turning Earth into a hot, dry world like Venus. In fact, Venus may have once hosted a shallow liquid-water ocean and temperatures conducive to life before a runaway greenhouse process made its environment unbearable when it was as old as 2 billion years.
At the age of our solar system, things are calm -- for now. But as a star gets older, it may end up obliterating some of its planets. Will Earth survive? Read on to Chapter 6.
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