Chapter 16

EXPLORATION AND EXPANSION

• From Magic to Science

• Natural Philosophers: religious teachings + classical thought to explain the unexplainable

• Roger Bacon: 1200s scientist & philosopher

• Favored a system of experimentation as a means of finding truth (not faith)

• Scientific Revolution: experiments & mathematics used to explain nature

• Answered questions in physics, astronomy & anatomy

SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION

• Scientists of 1500s question ancients

• Form conclusions based on their own observations

• 3 new tools to study

• Scientific instruments: barometer, microscope, telescope, air pump & thermometer

• Mathematics

• Experimentation – repeated for consistency

• Scientific Method

NEW STUDY OF NATURE

• Nicolaus Copernicus (Polish scientist)

• Ptolemy – geocentric theory – Earth is the center of

the universe

• Copernicus’s heliocentric theory

• Sun centered universe

• Published in 1543 – no initial reaction dismissed

• Johannes Kepler (German Astronomer)

• Proved Copernicus’s theory

• Used models, observation & math

• Laws of planetary motion 1609

ASTRONOMY

• Galileo

• Created own version of telescope

• Saw mountains & valleys on moon, rings of Saturn, moons of Jupiter and spots on the sun

• Published findings in 1632 – upheaval

• Church declared telescope an invention of the devil

GALILEO GALILEI

• Newton (English Scientist)

• Law of Universal Gravitation

• Force that holds planets in orbit = same force that causes objects to fall to earth

• Explained laws of motion (3) & how to measure it

• Changed the game!

• Creation viewed as a giant mechanical clock

ISSAC NEWTON

“Nature and nature’s laws lay hid in night; God said, “Let Newton be!” and all was light.”Alexander Pope

• Andreas Vesalius (Flemish Scientist)

• Pioneered the study of anatomy

• 7 Volume’s – amazing detail, visual understanding of how body works

• William Harvey (English physician)

• Studied circulation of blood

• Described how blood moves through body

• Functions of the heart

VESALIUS & HARVEY

“I advise you not to trouble with words unless you are speaking to blind men.” Da Vinci

• Rene Descartes (French philosopher & mathematician)

• No assumption could be accepted w/o question

• Published: Discourse on Method (1637) – assumptions must be proven on basis of known facts

• “I think therefore I am”

• Challenged the Church – lived in Protestant Sweden

DESCARTES

• Francis Bacon (English philosopher & scientist)

• Scientific theories can be developed only through observation

• Can’t trust an observation unless you can repeat it

MMM BACON…..

MERCANTILISM• Mercantilism – Country’s wealth = how much gold and silver it has saved

• World had a fixed amount of wealth

• Increase – take it from another country

• Balance of Trade

• Favorable BoT: export more than you import

• 3 Ways to achieve a Favorable BoT:

• 1.) Tariffs – reduce the amount of imports by taxing goods

• 2.) Subsidies – gov’t grants to start new industries & build ships

• 3.) Gain control of overseas resources (colonization)

CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS• October 12, 1492 Lands at San Salvador (Bahamas)

• West Indies – believed he landed off the coast of Asia

• Columbian Exchange – Trade B/W Americas’s and Europe

• Opened up regular trade b/w Eastern & Western Hemisphere

• Gold & Silver mined in South America was shipped to Spain

• American foods (potatoes, tomatoes, beans & corn) introduced to Europe

• Spanish brought horses to America

• Exchanged diseases (smallpox) – killing millions

TRIANGLE TRADE• Triangular Trade

• 1st merchants shipped cotton goods, weapons & liquor to Africa in exchange for slaves or gold

• 2nd exchange or Middle Passage – Route of slaves from Africa to Americas sold to Plantation owners

• 3rd exchange sent plantation’s products to Europe

• Middle Passage

• Brutal and degrading

• Slaves were chained together in the hull of the ship

• No sanitation, little food or water – many died in travel

• Mid 1700’s – Early 1800’s estimated 10 million survived the trip