Exploration and voyages of discovery Flashcards

All 7 cards in this deck

Give one way new technology made Elizabethan exploration possible.

Improved navigational instruments such as the cross staff and astrolabe let sailors work out their position at sea more accurately.

How did the growing wealth of the gentry and middle classes prompt exploration?

Their demand for luxury goods drove the search for new sources of wealth and new areas to trade with.

Give one reason Drake set out on his voyage of 1577–80.

To raid Spanish ships and settlements for gold and silver, with Elizabeth's secret backing.

Why was Drake's circumnavigation of the globe (completed 1580) significant?

He was the first Englishman to sail around the world, which encouraged others to explore and claim land for England.

How did changes in ship design encourage longer voyages?

Galleons were faster, easier to steer and steadier at sea, with room for more stores and guns, so they could stay out on much longer journeys.

What land did Drake claim for Elizabeth during his circumnavigation (1577–80)?

Nova Albion, on the Pacific coast of North America near modern San Francisco.

Why did problems in the cloth trade push English merchants to look further afield?

Antwerp in the Spanish Netherlands was the main outlet for English woollen cloth. The Dutch Revolt and quarrels with Spain disrupted that trade, so merchants looked for new markets and goods elsewhere.