Land ho! Discover what the Age of Exploration was all about in this wonderful addition to the bestselling Who HQ series! Before the fifteenth century, European sailors were unsure what waited for them beyond their well-known travel routes around the Mediterranean Sea, so they kept within sight of land. But all of that changed after Prince Henry the Navigator of Portugal started sending ships down the coast in the hope of finding a sea route to India and Africa. This was the beginning of a giant leap toward understanding what the globe actually looked like. Certain European nations grew rich and powerful from the New World gold and lands they claimed, while advanced, long-standing civilizations like the Aztecs and Incas were destroyed in the cruelest of ways. This book also features the fun black-and-white illustrations and engaging 16-page photo insert that readers have come love about the What Was? series! Catherine Daly has been a children's book author for many years. She has written many books for young readers, including the Petal Pushers middle grade series. This is her first book in the Who HQ series. She lives in New York City with her family. What Was the Age of Exploration? The island of Hispaniola (present-day Dominican Republic and Haiti) The man was inside a barrel. He had to stay quiet and still. The barrel was going to be loaded onto a ship sailing to South America, to a place called Urabá (now Colombia). Why couldn’t the man board the ship like the rest of the crew? He owed a lot of money to people in Hispaniola, and they wouldn’t let him leave. So he had to find a way to sneak off the island. Hiding inside a barrel was the answer. The man’s name was Vasco Núñez de Balboa (say: VAS-co NOO-nyez day bal-BOH-uh), and the year was 1510. Balboa could hear other barrels being rolled aboard. At last it was his turn. His plan worked! The barrel he was inside of hit the deck. When the ship was finally at sea, Balboa got out of his barrel. The captain was angry. But then he learned that Balboa was a Spanish explorer who had already been to Urabá. He would be useful once they arrived. So the captain didn’t throw Balboa overboard. When the ship reached Urabá, there was a horrible surprise. The Spanish colony had nearly been wiped out by the local Native people. So Balboa suggested that the ship should instead head to the Isthmus of Panama. (An isthmus is a narrow strip of land with water on either side.) He knew that the Native people there were friendly to Europeans. Balboa also hoped he and the other Spanish explorers would discover gold there. The settlement was named Santa María de la Antigua del Darién. In 1513, Balboa set off with hundreds of Native people and about 190 Spaniards, including Francisco Pizarro, who was also to become a famous explorer. Their journey took nearly a month. There were mountains, swamps, and thick rain forests to navigate. They encountered alligators, poisonous snakes, swarms of mosquitoes, and cannibals. Many men died along the way. Finally, they reached the other side of the isthmus. Balboa climbed to the top of a mountain and took a look. Did Balboa find gold? No. Instead, he found himself gazing upon a vast sea that no European had ever seen before. Balboa put on his armor, waded into the waves, and claimed the ocean for Spain. He named it the South Sea (now the Pacific Ocean). Did Balboa discover the Pacific Ocean? Absolutely not. And he had no right to “claim it” for Spain. European explorers, however, felt entitled to do this. Balboa’s story did not have a happy ending. His enemies had him falsely arrested, accusing him of betraying his country. Pizarro turned on him. Balboa was beheaded in 1519, and his head was stuck on a spike for all to see. Balboa was just one of a number of European explorers who—from the 1400s into the 1600s—ventured beyond the lands familiar to them. Many did not survive. Through their voyages, however, they completely changed what people knew about the world. We call this time the Age of Exploration. Chapter 1: Marco Polo and the Silk Road Like many people today, wealthy Europeans of long ago liked fancy things. And a lot of the fancy things they liked—ivory, jewels, and silks, among others—came from the Indies. (That was the name Europeans in the Middle Ages used for Asia and India.) In addition, Europeans wanted spices that were not grown in their homelands. While finding and selling these goods could make traders rich, the trip from Europe to the Indies was long, difficult, and dangerous. Until the end of the 1400s, there were two ways to reach the Indies from Europe. One was by sea, a journey called the Spice Route. A ship had to cross the Mediterranean Sea on its way to the Middle East, then sail around India through Indonesia and on to China. Just sailing across the Mediterranean was difficult. The powerful city-state of Venice controlle