The Age of Exploration introduces students to European exploration and trade from 1400 to the 1600s. Students learn about motivations for European exploration, including profit from the trade of goods such as gold, silk, sugar, and spices, as well as the desire to spread Christianity. Students study specific explorers (Bartolomeu Dias, Vasco de Gama, Pedro Cabral, Christopher Columbus, Ferdinand Magellan, and Vasco Núñez de Balboa) and learn about their encounters with indigenous peoples. Students also learn about John Cabot and the search for the Northwest Passage, Sir Francis Drake, Jacques Cartier, Samuel de Champlain, and Henry Hudson. Students are introduced to the early slave trade and the beginnings of slavery in the Americas.