Age of Exploration

Beginning in the 15th century and ending in the 17th century, Europeans became fascinated with exploring new lands, discovering new sea routes, and accomplishing what was once considered impossible. What sparked this sudden interest in the land beyond their home? Who was the most memorable of the explorers? What did they find? What was the outcome of this exploration? Let's find out what European Exploration was really about!

Age of Exploration Timeline

This timeline of events starts with Prince Henry the Navigator and ends with the creation of the Dutch East India Company. This chart will help us understand the order of events then we can look into the exploration of Africa and the Americas to know how they connect!

Age of Exploration Map

Below is the image of the age of exploration map.

Fig 1: Reference Map of the Age of Exploration

European Sailors During the Age of Exploration

The Ottomans controlled the trade routes between Europe and Asia. They heavily taxed the Europeans who wanted to trade with India. India had luxury items like spices, sugar, and teas, which were precious to Europeans. Because of this, the Europeans were racing to find a new trade route to India. Whoever found it first would generate wealth for their nations.

Henry the Navigator

Henry the Navigator was a Portuguese prince who sponsored voyages to explore the coast of Africa. His goal was to find new routes to India by having a crew sail around Africa. The prince hired mathematicians, sailors, mapmakers, shipbuilders, and more to improve Portuguese sailing. One of his most notable contributions to sailing was the caravel.

After Prince Henry died in 1460, Bartolomeu Dias would sail around the Cape of Good Hope in 1488. This feat put Portugal ahead in the race to find a sea route to India.

Fig 2: Caravel Ship

Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus, an Italian voyager, sailed across the Atlantic Ocean and landed on the island of Hispaniola (La Española), what is modern-day Haiti, in 1492. Isabel of Castile and Ferdinand of Argon, the Spanish queen and king, sponsored Columbus in an attempt to find a westward passage to Asia. He made four voyages but never found the westward passage. He did "discover" several islands inhabited by indigenous people–although he never set foot on the continent.

The Spanish Crown made Columbus governor of Hispaniola, and he established a colony on the island in 1493. It was not long before he enslaved the Taino people and forced them to find gold. In 1500, Francisco De Bobadilla arrested Columbus for his mismanagement of the colony and the mistreatment of the colonists and indigenous people. Columbus was released when he returned to Spain but was not given back the colony.

Vasco da Gama

In 1498, Vasco da Gama sailed around the Cape of Good Hope to Calicut, India. Da Gama could not strike a trade deal with the Indians because they preferred to trade with the Ottomans. He returned in 1502 with a fleet of ships which he used to capture and burn a pilgrimaging Muslim ship, murdering four hundred men, women, and children.

After da Gama continued to terrorize the Indian coast, Calicut's ruler signed a trade deal in exchange for peace. Da Gama returned to Portugal as a hero, but people in India tell another story, as they suffered his most ruthless side–even some considered him to be a murderous villain. However, he is a national hero in Portugal because he won the European race to India by sea, which made them very wealthy.

Age of Exploration Explorers

The vast amount of land and possible riches being discovered, both Spain and Portugal felt entitled to those territories and began arguing over who got what. These peninsular empires called Pope Alexander VI in to divide the non-European world. He gave Spain what is on the left of the orange line on the map, and Portugal got the right. Portugal was upset it got much less so the Pope redrew the line in 1494 in the Treaty of Tordesillas (the pink line on the map).

Fig 3: Line of Demarcation

John Cabot

John Cabot, a Genevan man like Christopher Columbus, was commissioned by Henry VII of England to find a Northern sea route to India. Cabot didn't find any sea routes to India, but he was the first European that discover North America during the Age of Exploration. In 1497, Cabot claimed the land that he found for England. This claim allowed the English colonies to settle in North America in 1607.

Cabot returned with three Inuit men who were assimilated into English culture. Their assimilation convinced the English that indigenous people of the Americas could be "civilized."

Hernán Cortés

In 1519, Conquistador Hernán Cortés went to Central America intending to find gold, even disobeying the Spanish kings who ordered him to return. He gambled his destiny on finding riches no matter the cost for him and others. The price was the destruction of the Aztec empire and the decimation of the indigenous people–more than 90% of the original population of Mesoamerica would die after that exchange.

In the first contact, the Aztec Emperor, Montezuma II, displeased with Cortés's arrival, sent Cortés gold as a peace offering so that the conquistador would leave, but this only encouraged him to go further. Cortés was invited to the capital city Tenochtitlan in the second contact, where Montezuma welcomed him. Cortés had Montezuma kidnapped and then forced him to pledge loyalty to the King of Spain.

The Spanish treacherously slaughtered their hosts during a religious ceremony in which no Aztec warrior bared arms. This action was clear evidence for the population of the Spaniards' belligerent intentions. They revolt against the invaders, winning an ephemeral victory.

After some clashes against Cortés forces and his indigenous allies, a smallpox plague that annihilated the indigenous population, and the starving 93 days siege of the capital in which the Aztecs could not reprovision or ask their confederate tribes for help, Cortés claimed control of the Aztec capital and found a new realm there in 1521: New Spain.

Fig 3: Monetzuma II

Outcomes of the Age of Exploration

The European explorations of this era linked nations together in a completely new way. European countries were profiting from new business ventures and even began creating companies like the Dutch East India Company, abbreviated to the VOC. This was all great for European countries but what about everyone else?

Vasco da Gama set a trend when he employed Portugal's military might to shock and demoralize India, coercing it into a trade deal. When European countries wanted to trade with foreign countries, they forced their way into the market. These foreign countries had little to no choice but to agree with the Europeans who had superior weapons.

When conquistadors and explorers came into contact with indigenous people, they brought diseases that the indigenous people had no immunities to. Many of these explorers slaughtered native people without cause. When they weren't murdering them, they were trying to assimilate them, to remove their cultures and anything that made them different.

Europeans needed labor with all of these new markets and colonies, so they turned to slavery. Importing indigenous people and Africans to work excruciating jobs, living as property until they died. The Age of Exploration connected humanity in a way that had never been done before but was the human price worth it?