Join the Europeans who led the way in search for new routes across the oceans. They were funded by kings & queens and motivated by the desire for wealth in the guise of spices. These were not easy voyages, lack of food & water plus bad weather led to sinking ships or ill sailors.
Possibly the best known is James Cook who would test the K1 (copy of the H4 sea watch) to establish longitude at sea. Also well known is Amerigo Vespucci, and while he did a lot of exploring of the South American coast, it is for the placing of his name on a map.
Would you be brave enough to travel days at sea with no idea of where land might be?
Segments: Motivation for 15th-Century Exploration03:30
- Voyage of Vespucci03:42
- Vespucci Discovers a New World04:04
- The Name “America”02:15
films on demand segment created.
DESCRIPTION
Using sophisticated animation and expertise from modern scholars and archivists, this program reconstructs European voyages of discovery that took place in the 15th through 18th centuries and profiles the visionaries who led them. Viewers are introduced to Amerigo Vespucci, the Italian merchant who gave his name to the New World; Ferdinand Magellan, the Portuguese admiral who found the passage to the Pacific; Louis-Antoine Bougainville, the first Frenchman to circumnavigate the globe; French explorer Jean François de Galaup La Pérouse, whose expedition criss-crossed the Pacific, then vanished in Oceania; and James Cook, the English navigator who mapped the Eastern coast of Australia. (72 minutes)