Chapter 15

Scientific Revolution
and the Age of
Exploration
 Classical Science
 Between 600 B.C.E. to 200 C.E., Ancient Greek scientists
developed many new ideas using rationalism.
 Rationalism used reason, or logical thought (why?), to
understand the world.
 Aristotle developed the geocentric theory, a theory that placed
Earth at the center of the universe.
 500 years after Aristotle, Ptolemy agreed with and expanded
Aristotle’s view. Aristotle’s and Ptolemy’s view of the universe
proved to be wrong.
 At around 500 B.C.E., a Greek scholar named Pythagoras (pih-
thag-uhr-us) explained that all things combine in an agreeable
way to form the universe. For example the Pythagoras
Theorem a=9, b=12, c=15.
 About 200 years after Pythagoras, Euclid (you-khlid) studied
shapes and developed a type of math known as geometry.
 At around 100 C.E., Galen studied the structure of living things
in what is known as anatomy. Galen learned through
dissection, cutting plants, and animals to look at their parts.
MAKE Artificial Hand
 Science in the Middle Ages
 Between the mid-700s and mid-1200s, Muslims culture
flourished (Chapter 3 and 4).
 Muslim scholars studied and advanced the learning of
classical Greece and other ancient societies.
 Al-Khwarizmi, an Islamic mathematician, used the number
system and zero from India to develop the Arabic number
system that is used in most of the world today.
 Al-Khwarizmi also developed a type of math known as
algebra.
 In the early 900s, Al-Razi was able to identify and describe
diseases.
 At around 1000, Ibn Sina organized all medical knowledge
in the Canon of Medicine.
 Muslim, Jewish, and Christian scholars gathered in Al-
Andalus (Muslim Spain) to share knowledge. Books written
in Greek and Arabic were translated into Latin.
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Starting in the 1500s, European scholars began to
question classical scientific ideas and Christian beliefs
in what became known as the Scientific Revolution.
1543 – Nicolaus Copernicus reasoned a
view of the universe called heliocentric. 1590 – Zacharias
Copernicus stated that the stars, Earth,
and other planets revolved around the Janssen invented
sun in an oval shape.
WATCH Mini Bio Copernicus the microscope.
1609 – Jahannes Kepler used
math to prove Copernicus’
theory that the planets revolve
around the sun in elliptical
orbits (oval shape).
1610 – Galileo Galilei used the
telescope to support Copernicus’ idea
of heliocentric, and disproved the
Church’s belief that the universe was
geocentric.
WATCH Mini Bio Galileo
1628– William Harvey showed
that blood was pumped
through the body by the
heart, not the liver as the
Greeks believed.
1643 – Evangelista Torricelli
invented the barometer, which
measured the pressure of Earth’s
atmosphere and the barometer
is used to predict the weather.
 1687 – Isaac Newton’s theory of
1670 – Anton von motion stated that all objects in the
Leeuwenhoek used the universe were affected by a force
called gravity. Gravity is what keeps
microscope to observe planets in orbit.
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1714 – Gabriel Fahrenheit
invented the mercury
thermometer and a
temperature scale.
 The Age of Exploration
 Europeans wanted luxury goods from Asia such as silks and
porcelain from China as well as spices from India.
 Italian and Muslim merchants controlled overland trade between
Europe and Asia.
 Merchants from Portugal, Spain, England, and France wanted to
find a sea route to Asia, which was cheaper than overland trade.
 Portugal was the first Europeans to establish sea trade with Asia
Prince Henry known as the “the Navigator” sponsored voyages
of exploration.
 Portuguese sailors traveled on caravels with both square and
triangular sails for long voyages and used an astrolabe to help
find a ship’s latitude (distance north or south of the equator).
 In 1488, Bartolomeu Dias traveled around the southern par of
Africa before returning to Portugal.
 In 1498, Vasco da Gama sailed all the way to India.
 A few years later Portugal set up trading posts in India, and
further east in the Spice Islands.
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 Columbus Reaches Americas
 In 1492, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella sponsored
Christopher Columbus’ plan to sail west to Asia.
 In early August 1492 Columbus set sail from Spain with 3
caravels (Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria) and about 90 men.
 After almost 10 week at sea, on October 12, 1492 Columbus
landed on what he believed was India, but was actually in the
Caribbean Sea.
 Columbus incorrectly called the people who greeted him Indios
(Indians).
 In 1494, Spain and Portugal signed the Treaty of Tordesillas
that created an imaginary line from north to south around world.
 All lands west (left) of the line would be claimed by Spain, and
all lands east (right) of the line would be claimed by Portugal.
 By the early 1500s, Spain controlled most of present-day Mexico
and Central America. Portugal would control Brazil.
 Hernan Cortes conquered the Aztecs.
 Francisco Pizarro conquered the Incas.
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 Exploration After Columbus
 In 1519, Portuguese sailor Ferdinand Magellan sponsored by the
Spanish tried to circumnavigate the globe, but Magellan was
killed in the Philippine Islands.
 Magellan set sail from Spain with 5 ships and 250 men. After
almost 3 years, only 1 ship and 18 of the original crew members
returned to Spain.
 After 1492, the movement of plants, animals, and other living
things between the eastern and western hemispheres became
known as the Columbian Exchange.
 The Spanish mined for silver in Central and South America. The
Spanish used the silver to buy luxury goods from Asia (silks and
porcelain from China as well as spices from India).
 In the triangular trade African slaves were paid for with cheap
manufactured goods from Europe, and transported to the West
Indies to grow sugar canes. Eventually the sugar was shipped to
America and Europe.
 Diseases brought by Europeans to the Americas killed over 20
million Native Americans.
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