The Exploration of Middle America

Discovering America: 5th Grade The Exploration of Middle America

Liberty: How did liberty entice other explorers?

The Age of Exploration was one of the most important times in the history of world geography. A significant portion of the unknown world was mapped during this short period. Also, many advances were made in navigation and mapping, which helped future explorers and travelers.

During this time in history, expeditions from Europe to the west made money primarily by discovering new trade routes. The liberty to establish new trade routes was a primary motivator for European capitalism at that time. When the Ottoman Empire captured Constantinople in the mid-1400s, many existing trade routes from Europe to India and China were shut down.

These trade routes were very valuable as they brought expensive products such as spices and silk. New expeditions tried to discover oceangoing ways to India and the Far East, with some discovering gold and silver riches. For example, the journeys of the Spanish to the Americas. They also found new land where colonies could be established, and crops such as sugar, cotton, and tobacco could be grown.

Let’s take a closer look at the explorers who documented parts of early central and southern America.

Liberty was also an important concept for the Spanish, and one explorer and conquistador (Spanish soldier), in particular, named Hernando de Soto. At the age of 14, de Soto left home on a voyage to the Indies. Five years later, he joined another expedition to the Americas. Like many before him, de Soto and his crew were looking for gold and a way to China on this expedition. In other words, liberty to expand their riches and gain glory for their country.

Enticed by the riches and fertile land Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca had allegedly encountered, de Soto sold his belongings and used the money to prepare for an expedition to North America. He assembled a fleet of 10 ships and selected a crew of 700 men to make the journey. He wanted liberty to expand their riches and gain glory for their country. They explored the southern United States and were possibly the first Europeans to discover the Mississippi River.

René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle (Sieur de La Salle) was another explorer on the quest for liberty and adventure. La Salle was born in 1643 in France. When he started his expeditions, many other explorers had visited the Americas. When La Salle was 23 years old, he went to Canada and traded for animal furs. While there, indigenous people told La Salle of a river that ran from the Great Lakes to the sea. This river was the Mississippi River. Three years later, La Salle set out to find the ocean. He did not reach the Mississippi river on his first attempt but another river, which was probably the Ohio River.

La Salle set off in search of the Mississippi 13 years after his first voyage. This time he was successful. He took the Illinois River to the Mississippi River and floated to the Gulf of Mexico. On the way, he claimed the land surrounding the river for France. As he reached the river’s mouth at the Gulf of Mexico, he claimed all the region watered by the Mississippi for Louis XIV, naming the area ‘Louisiana.’ His claim of Louisiana for France pointed the way to the French colonial empire that other men eventually built.

Here are a few other interesting facts about the Age of Exploration:

During the Age of Exploration, Europeans referred to the entire area of Southeast Asia and India as the ‘East Indies.’
Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan led the first expedition to circle the globe.
Some areas of the world were not fully mapped or discovered until well after the Age of Exploration, including Eastern Australia, the interior of Africa, the Arctic, and the Antarctic.
Many explorers searched for a Northwest Passage to East Asia, but it wasn’t until 1906 that this actually happened.
The states of Western Europe controlled the newly dominant Atlantic economy at this time — France, Britain, and Germany. And up to the present, they have been the wealthiest and most powerful on the continent.

The desire to find new water routes to Asia was the main reason for the start of the Age of Discovery. There were other factors too. One of these was the Renaissance, a period of artistic, cultural, and scientific renewal. Discoveries made during the Renaissance included the invention of the telescope and improved compasses that allowed explorers to navigate the oceans better.

Little Patriots

René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle bust image from: https://www.biography.com/explorer/rene-robert-cavelier-sieur-de-la-salle.

René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle Louisiana image from: https://www.thestoryoftexas.com/la-belle/the-exhibit/how-la-belle-changed-history.

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