Q.6 A:

 

(i)To gain control of the spice trade/ To gain wealth/ To expand their empires/ To spread Christianity/ For personal prestige.

 

(ii)Astrolabe: To help pinpoint a ship’s position at sea, (north or south of equator).

    Logbook: A book containing a detailed record/log of a sea voyage.

    Log and Line: (A float attached to a line used) to measure a ship’s speed or distance travelled.

    Sand-Glass: To measure time (and so help calculate distance travelled)

 

(iii) Lateen sails/ Clinker-built/ Could tack (sail against the wind)/ (Shallow keel meant) it could navigate coastal waters/ More manoeuvrable,

 

(iv) Here part (a) and (b) are the better of the three parts and I will answer both of those

 

(a) Portugals contribution to the age of exploration: The portuguese were the first explorers. The son tof the king of Spain Henrt the Navigator wanted to explore the coast of Africa for several reasons- To convert muslims to christianity, to conquer lands, to gain control of the spice trades and to become wealthier. He set up a school of navigation in Sagres in the south of Spain and from there he launched his first expidition to Africa. He got as far as far as the Azores and the Cape verde islands and conquered these for Portugal. Following Prince Henry's expidition, another explorer Bartholemew Diaz left portugal to explore the coast of Africa and he reached the tip of Africa known as the Cape of Storms but Diaz renamed it the Cape of Good Hope. The final expidition to Africa from Portugal was led ten years later by Vasco De Gama. He used the past explorations to his advantage and rounded the tip of Africa and he used local pilots to guide him to Calicut (Calcutta), India. The Portugeuse set up trading post along the coast of Africa to trade spices initially.

 

(b) Hernando Cortes and the conquest of Mexico: Hernando cortes was not an explorer but a soldier who wanted to explore Africa as he had heard of the vast quantities of gold and slaves there. He landed at Vera Cruz and destroyed his ships on order to show his men there would be no turning back. He wanted to attack the Aztec capital of Tenochiclan using the help of local tribes who hated the Aztecs. The Aztecs, seeing Cortes approach thought he was a god who had returned to Earth adn their emporer Montezuma came to great them. However, the aztecs killed Montezuma as they thought he had betrayed them. The Spaniards and the local tribes ransacked the city of gold and silver. Once they ransacked the city, they raised the city and it was later rebuilt as Mexico city. They Aztecs who survived were turned into slaves to mine gold to be sent back to Spain