The European age of exploration and colonization
In 1271, the young Venetian merchant Marco Polo set out with his brothers on an arduous trip along the Silk Road to Mongolia. While trade along the Silk Road was a significant development factor for China, India, Persia, and Arabia, for Europeans the trek posed dangers and difficulties. A major reason Europeans mounted sea voyages in the 1400s was to find shipping routes for easier trade with Asia for spices and textiles.
- West Africa—Portugal
Portugal made early advances in voyaging due to a longstanding maritime culture and a stable monarchy, as well as the leadership of Prince Henry the Navigator (1394-1460). Although Prince Henry did not accompany his ships, he was nevertheless the guiding spirit behind early European exploration of West Africa. Portuguese ships sailed farther and farther down the African coast until in 1488 Bartholomeu Dias rounded the Cape of Good Hope and reached the Indian Ocean. As exploration continued, Portuguese sailors brought back African captives to Lisbon. Portugal dominated the African slave trade for much of the 16th century, extending it to their colony of Brazil. The Portuguese Crown claimed much of the West African coast.
- The Americas—Spain
Sailing from Spain on August 3, 1492, Christopher Columbus and his crew caught sight of an island he called San Salvador (now called Watling Island, in the Bahamas), on October 12. He believed he had reached Asia. Later that month, Columbus sighted Cuba and in December he discovered Hispaniola (the island that now comprises Haiti and the Dominican Republic). On a second voyage he landed on the islands of Dominica, Guadeloupe, and Antigua. The closest he came to "America" was Puerto Rico. On the same voyage, he sighted Jamaica and surveyed the Cuban coast. On his third voyage to the New World, he landed on Trinidad and sighted Venezuela. On his fourth and final voyage, he sailed past Honduras, searched the Central American coast for a westward passage, and landed on Panama and Jamaica. Columbus's discovery began an exchange—of ideas, populations, food crops, and disease—that in its consequence still reverberates today.
