part0022

I believe it was God’s will that we should come back, so that men might know the things that are in the world, since…no other man, Christian or Saracen, Mongol or pagan, has explored so much of the world as Messer Marco, son of Messer Niccolo Polo, great and noble citizen of the city of Venice.

(Marco Polo, Book of the Marvels of the World )

The Renaissance brought with it a yearning for knowledge and a strong desire to see everything the world had to offer. Strong kingdoms with the resources to fund exploratory missions across land and sea took their chances as much in an attempt to curb the potential colonial spread of their neighbors as to make any genuine discoveries. As always, financial gain was more important than discovery for discovery’s sake; so, it was with commercialism in mind that monarchs sent their most skilled naval officers on such expeditions.

Trade and international exploration were nothing new to the people of the Mediterranean, whose Greek counterparts had been mostly absorbed into the Turkish Ottoman Empire. The Holy Roman Empire was also an old hand at seafaring ventures, but its internal structure was far too fragmented to arrange for an international venture. The Republic of Venice had already cornered the market on Asian spices and was unprepared to break the status quo. The Netherlands and Scandinavia were mostly distracted by their participation in religious wars, and that left most of the exploration in the hands of Western Europe.

The western nations of the continent had long been excluded from the excitement of overseas exploration due to their far position from the Mediterranean center of transit, but with updated shipping technologies in place, they were eager to make up for it. Outdated overland trade routes into Asia gave ship captains the excuse they were looking for to sail east. Asian spices, tea, and silks were immensely popular with aristocratic Europeans, and merchants stood to lose their livelihoods if the old routes could not be replaced.

Portugal, a traditionally strong seafaring nation, set out earlier than its peers. In the first part of the 15th century, Prince Henry the Navigator began sailing down the western length of Africa, founding Portuguese villages and expanding his existing maps. [121] Fernão Gomes picked up where Prince Henry had left off and further developed Portuguese trade with Africa, resulting in peppers, gold dust, and foreign slaves. The slave trade proved to be a huge financial boon for the impoverished Portuguese crown, but it still wanted to find a way to trade directly with India.

In search of India, Christopher Columbus, an Italian explorer, decided on a unique solution; he would sail west instead of east and reach India from its eastern coast. After years of petitioning, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Castile decided to give Columbus the chance he so desired. In 1492, he set sail for India and 79 days later set foot on an island in the Bahamas. [122] At first believing the native people he saw there to be Indians, he called them “Indios.” It’s difficult to say when it became apparent that Columbus and his crew had found an altogether different people—members of the so-called New World.

The discovery of an entirely unknown continent was unprecedented. King John II of Portugal may have missed the chance to claim all the New World for himself, but he did not hesitate to send his own scouts after 1492 in order to capitalize on all the gold Columbus claimed to have found there. Other nations flocked west to see for themselves and to claim a piece of the treasures that lay there. Spain and Portugal were the first European nations to plant their flags in what came to be called the Americas.

Strategically, King John III (successor to Manuel I, who was heir to John II) still had India in his sights. He believed that he could reach India by sailing all the way around Africa, but without any correct maps, his theory could not be proven. A sailor called Vasco da Gama took up the challenge and successfully rounded Africa before touching ground in Calicut, India. [123] With the route secured, commercial trade with India began in earnest, and Portugal became the first European entity to establish its own trading center and factories there.

It was Spain, however, that profited the most during Europe’s Age of Discovery. The brutal, violent regime at home was mirrored overseas in the Americas where Spanish conquistadors, such as Hernán Cortés, demolished the existing cultures and their leaders. Cortés led a major attack on the Aztec nation of modern Mexico City in 1521, claiming the city and its surrounding regions for Spain. [124] Vast numbers of the native peoples were murdered at Cortés’ command as he took charge of the administration of the Spanish crown’s “New Spain,” which reached down into South America. He and his people stripped the cities of their considerable golden objects and sent them back to Europe to fill the coffers of King Charles I of Spain (who was also Holy Roman Emperor Charles V).

England’s involvement in the New World was minimal at first, as was that of France. Queen Elizabeth I of England was hard-pressed to send her most capable naval officers and ships to the Americas when she faced the constant threat of war from Spain. As Spain grew ever wealthier and more powerful on the international stage, however, the English and French had little choice but to try to divide what they could of the New World among themselves. Spain and Portugal had already claimed much of Mexico and Brazil, respectively, but there was still plenty of land in the northern continent that had yet to be stolen for Europe.

France, England, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Spain, and Portugal spent the bulk of the next century agreeing upon their borders within North and South America, while the people who already inhabited those continents were killed, subdued, or given promises of future compromise. Eventually, the entire landmass was claimed under European authority, and Portugal moved its capital city to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. [125] People from Germany, Italy, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, Scotland, and the tiny Duchy of Courland sailed west to build their own colonies as well, and these all had a hand in the shaping of the Americas in the modern age.

With the bulk of the world mapped and divided among the strongest states, Europe’s wealth grew exponentially. So, too, did the need of its people to expand their knowledge of the ever-growing world they were a part of.