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Portugal had expanded into Muslim North Africa, seizing the port of Ceuta on the North African coast.
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Prince Henry died in 1460, but the Portugese continued their quest south to explore the western coast of Africa.
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Bartholomeu Dias rounded the southern tip of Africa. Despite the turbulent seas around it, the tip became known as the Cape of Good Hope because it opened the way for a sea route to Asia.
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Columbus sailed west with three small ships, the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria. No land came into sight for many weeks. Provisions ran low, and the crew became anxious. Finally, on October 12, land was spotted.
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Ferdinand and Isabella appealed to the Spanish-born Pope Alexander VI to support their claim to the lands of the new world. The pope set a Line of Demarcation, dividing the non-European world into two zones. Spain had trading and exploration rights in any lands west of the line. Portugal had the same rights east of the line.
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Columbus spent several months cruising the islands of the Caribbean. Because he thought he had reached the Indies, he called the people of the region "Indians." He returned to Spain to a hero's welcome. In three later voyages, Columbus remained convinced that he reached the coast of East Asia. Before long, other Europeans realized he had found a route to previously unknown continents.
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The specific terms of the Line of Demarcation were agreed to in the Treat of Tordesillas, signed between the two countries in 1494. The tready made it obvious to both Spain and Portugal that they needed to build their own empires quickly.
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Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama followed in Dias's footsteps, leading 4 ships around the Cape of Good Hope. Da Gama had plans to go further. After a ten-month voyage, da Gama reached the great spice port of Calicut on the west coast of India. On the long voyage home, the Portuguese lost half their ships, and many sailors died of hunger, thirst, and scurvy.
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In India, da Gama had acquired a cargo of spices that he sold at an enormous profit. He quickly outfitted a new fleet, seeking greater profits. In 1502, he forced a treaty on the ruler of Calicut. Da Gama then left Portuguese merchants there whose job was to buy spices when prices were low and store them until the next fleet could return.
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A German cartographer named Martin Waldseemuller used Vespucci's descriptions of his voyage to publish a map of the region, which he labled "America." Over time, the term "Americas" came to be used for both continents of the Western Hemisphere.
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Though Europenans had claimed vast new territories, they had not yet found a direct route to Asia. Spanish adventurer Vasco Nunez de Balboa, helped by Indians, hacked a passage westward through the tropical forests of Panama. From a ridge on the west coast, he gazed at a huge body of water, the Pacific Ocean.
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A minor portuguese mobelman named Ferdinand Magellan set out from Spain with five ships to find a way to reach the Pacific. His ships sailed south and west, through storms and calms and tropical heat. At last, his fleet reached the coast of South America. Carefully, they explored each bay, hoping to find one that would lead to the Pacific.
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Magellan insisted that his crew push across the Pacific to the East Indies on the return voyage home. Three more weeks, he thought, would bring them to the Spice Islands.
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After Magellan was killed, the survivors- one ship and 18 sailors- reached Spain. The survivors had been the first people to circumnavigate the world.
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In the 1500s and 1600s Europeans began to view slaves as the most important item of African trade. Africans were being taken directly from Africa and transported to the new year as slaves.
