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What technological advancements enabled Europeans to explore the Atlantic Ocean and what were their impacts?
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Technological advancements like improved cartography, compass technology, and shipbuilding, including triangular lateen sails and caravels, enabled Europeans to explore the Atlantic during the Age of Exploration. These innovations allowed for more accurate navigation and faster travel. Additionally, the printing press played a crucial role by disseminating updated maps and exploration accounts, inspiring further exploration. Improved weaponry also gave Europeans a strategic advantage in encounters with indigenous populations.
There were indeed several key technological advances that Europeans used extensively during the 15th and 16th centuries in order to explore the Atlantic Ocean and beyond. In fact, this period is often referred to as the Age of Exploration.
Many advancements were made in the field of cartography, also known as map making. Cartography had been around for centuries. However, in the early part of the 15th Century, Jacobus Angelus of Scarperia translated Ptolemy's Guide to Geography into Latin. This sparked a renewed interest in mapmaking throughout Renaissance Europe. Europeans began making more accurate maps and became further interested in what lay beyond their understanding of the known world. They were able to use compass readings and celestial navigation techniques to make geographical waypoints when making their maps.
With newer and more accurate maps, European explorers were able to go further by sea than ever before. With the addition...
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of improvedcompass technology, they were better able to keep track of the direction in which they were sailing. The compass had been around for centuries. However, Europeans returning from the Crusades brought back better compasses than had been previously used in Europe. From the Arabs, Europeans learned how to use wax and tar to make waterproof and salt-proof compasses that could better survive a long sea voyage.
Europeans also came back from the Crusades with knowledge of better sailing technology. They began building ships with triangularlateen sails rather than square ones. These were used extensively in caravels: a new, swift, shallow-bottomed ship. This type of sail allowed ships to sail much closer to the wind, and, therefore, they are able to travel more quickly and efficiently.
We should not neglect to mention that improved weapons also helped Europeans explore new places. Better firearm technology, such as the matchlock and wheellock, and improved canons meant that Europeans had an advantage over the peoples that they encountered who lacked this technology. They could attack targets onshore from the safety of their ships and could easily outmatch native populations when on land. As such, they were more fearless when encountering and engaging with the native peoples in the new lands that they explored.
The work of Johannes Gutenberg in 1440 was instrumental in the ability of Europeans to explore distant lands by sea. Gutenberg developed a printing press which could be used to mass-produce knowledge for the masses. The printing press has been almost universally considered the most important invention of mankind since the wheel. In 2013, The Atlantic ran an article which reiterated its importance. With the printing press, information could be transmitted faster and more efficiently and for a larger audience. This was important to overseas exploration in a number of ways. First, maps were becoming more accurate and could be reprinted more efficiently. In this way, mariners could use them and revise them as needed. This information could then be reprinted and the knowledge would continue to spread.
Another reason that the printing press was important to exploring the new world had to do with publicity. With the printing press, the exploits of the navigators could be easily documented and read by the masses. This encouraged other countries to seek new routes and new lands. These stories captured the imagination of the readers. The printing press also allowed the spread of many of the technologies that were surfacing to improve navigation.
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