The awakening of the modern period

an analytical and historical synthesis of the technologies implemented in the caravels (the compass, the astrolabe, the rudder and the third mast)

Abstract

This article aims to conduct an investigative synthesis on the updates of some instruments that made the caravel a more efficient vessel for carrying out European mercantile urposes. The intention is to analyze how the modernization of four nautical instruments, namely the compass, the astrolabe, the rudder, and the third mast, was fundamental for the transformations of maritime routes and the development of what historians conceptualized as the Great Navigations. The analysis will investigate these innovations, which were possible due to two main processes: an appropriation of existing technologies and the economic and social renewal of Europe, an indispensable factor for commercial expansion. Thus, the research elects as its central object of study these two variables that made European naval engineering advance in overseas navigation from the end of the 15th century.