{"id":350,"date":"2011-04-07T15:55:05","date_gmt":"2011-04-07T15:55:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.historymuseum.ca\/nouvelle-france\/"},"modified":"2012-04-13T10:57:07","modified_gmt":"2012-04-13T14:57:07","slug":"from-the-middle-ages-to-the-age-of-discovery","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.historymuseum.ca\/virtual-museum-of-new-france\/colonies-and-empires\/from-the-middle-ages-to-the-age-of-discovery\/","title":{"rendered":"From the Middle Ages to the Age of Discovery"},"content":{"rendered":"
Cabasset, Spain, first half of the seventeenth century<\/strong>
The cabasset was one of the most typical helmets for infantrymen from the early sixteenth to the middle of the seventeenth century. Its distinguishing features were a narrow, usually flat brim, and an almond shaped skull terminating in small backward-turning spur or spike. Owing to the technological progress in the field of firearms, the importance of personal armour declined considerably during the Early Modern period.
CWM 19740236-003 \u00a9 Canadian War Museum<\/div>\">\"Cabasset,<\/a>

Cabasset, Spain, first half of the seventeenth century<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

1492: a decisive date in the history of humanity. For some, it was a tremendous discovery; for others, it was a catastrophe. It constitutes a clear demarcation in history, because the discovery of America would call into question a great deal of knowledge about the Earth. Furthermore, that is why historians chose this date to define the beginning of a new historical period: the modern era.<\/p>\n

The success of the expedition led by Christopher Columbus, who, at least officially, was the first European to set foot on the soil of America, has all too often made us forget the multiple expeditions during the Middle Ages, over land or by sea, as well as the discoveries of the explorers. In particular, there was the fabulous odyssey of Marco Polo, the Venetian merchant who followed the silk road to China, the mystical voyage of Saint Brendan and the Norse or Viking settlement in Newfoundland.<\/p>\n

The voyage of Columbus would encourage Europeans to seek a passage to the East in order to exploit the riches attributed to this region. However, at the dawn of the Renaissance, many unfounded beliefs still held currency. In fact, although since Antiquity it was known that the Earth was round, the Catholic Church and a number of scientists continued to assert that the planet was flat and rectangular. Gaps remained in geographical knowledge. Certain explorers still believed in the existence of mythical countries, such as the kingdom of Prester John thought to be located in Ethiopia, or that of King Solomon, which concealed, according to legend, countless riches.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1492: a decisive date in the history of humanity. For some, it was a tremendous discovery; for others, it was a catastrophe. It constitutes a clear demarcation in history, because the discovery of America would call into question a great deal of knowledge about the Earth. Furthermore, that is why historians chose this date to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"parent":298,"menu_order":4,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.historymuseum.ca\/virtual-museum-of-new-france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/350"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.historymuseum.ca\/virtual-museum-of-new-france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.historymuseum.ca\/virtual-museum-of-new-france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.historymuseum.ca\/virtual-museum-of-new-france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.historymuseum.ca\/virtual-museum-of-new-france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=350"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/www.historymuseum.ca\/virtual-museum-of-new-france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/350\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2930,"href":"https:\/\/www.historymuseum.ca\/virtual-museum-of-new-france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/350\/revisions\/2930"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.historymuseum.ca\/virtual-museum-of-new-france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.historymuseum.ca\/virtual-museum-of-new-france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}