The Honors US I class will be given the syllabus for the American Sphinx tomorrow. The book is about Thomas Jefferson and highlights critical times during his life as well as his contributions to the founding of the United States as well as serving in the initial phase of government. The book can be ordered from ecampus.com, barnesandnoble.com, amazon.com, or it can be downloaded on a kindle. The easiest way to procure the book for free is to check it out from the public library in your area.
Notes:
The World in the 1400s:
- introduction of luxury items from the East due to Crusades; Pope Urban having declared the first Crusade; only the first Crusade was successful
- Crusades ended in failure for the Europeans and they were now bored looking for a new adventure or challenge
- The Black Plague still occurred from time to time, but not nearly as bad as the initial phase which wiped out a large percentage of the European population
- Nationalism - intense feeling of patriotism toward your country
- Power through control of trade
Asia - sugar, glass, steel (swords & armor) cutlery from Damascus and Baghdad, rugs from Peria, cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg from the East Indies, procelains and silks from China
Europe - woolen goods, tin, gold, and silver
Overland routes were dangerous and could take anywhere form months to years
Trade was controlled by the Italian city states of Venice and Genoa - they held a monopoly on this trade, of which, Portugal and Spain resented and wanted to find ocean routes to this trade that could make them wealthy
Prince Henry the Navigator (Portuguese)
- built shipyards and schools for navigators
- experimented with newer methods of navigation, newer maps, newer instruemtns for determining latitude and longitude
- improved compass
- Portuguese sailed along caost of Africa beyond the "sea of the unknown"
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