HIST 270 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Diego Columbus, Zheng He, Juan Ponce De León
Document Summary
Hist 270 - lecture 1 early america (9/8/17) What inventions enabled the europeans to travel so far: navigation the magnetic compass by han and song dynasty. Lodestone made the needle point n or s, depending on how it was magnetized. Later perfected by europeans ( stole it : the astrolabe, or wind rose alexandria, egypt. Celestial navigation predict star altitude, day, time, etc: quadrants (earliest in150 a. d. by ptolemy) used by columbus able to sail away from borders/coastline of europe. Math instrument determine altitude of a single celestial body (stars, planets) Use fixed point to calculate distance, can navigate your way out of the sight of land. Used before longitudinal lines existed: ships. Caravels and chinese treasure ships zheng he. Vertical stern was important enabled navigator to move it away from shoreline problems: canons enabled europeans to conquer the world. Nope: strong evidence of west africans arrived in mexico in 750 b. c. (suggested by evidence)
