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The Scientific Revolution, the Foundations of European Exploration, Voyages of Portugal & Spain, The Spanish and Dutch Empires.
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Some of these kingdoms profited from the slave trade. Not all African states participated in the slave trade with Europeans. Many African societies, however, had practiced slavery well before the Europeans' arrival.
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His three small ships—the Niña, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria—sailed westward across the Atlantic.
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It was a historic moment when Columbus and his captains planted the Spanish flag. Columbus claimed the land that he had reached for Spain.
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Unlike others, Vespucci did not think the land he saw was part of Asia. He called it a New World. A German mapmaker, impressed with Amerigo's argument, called the land America after Vespucci.
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He landed in India in 1498. Several years later, da Gama made a second voyage to India. He returned to Portugal, his ships full of valuable goods.Thanks to Dias and da Gama, an overseas trade route from Europe to India and the East Indies was now available.
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Cabral's tiny fleet of 13 ships was blown off course, and the Portuguese made landfall on the coast of what is now Brazil. Under the Treaty of Tordesillas, Cabral was able to claim this incredibly rich land for Portugal.
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The nearly continuous religious wars during Charles's reign drained Spain's human resources and treasury. Spain lacked industries and the government did little to promote them. So much of Spain's land was devoted to raising sheep for wool that the country could not produce enough food to feed its people
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Reaching a vast ocean, he named it the South Sea and claimed it for Spain. Balboa's discovery made it clear that the New World was not part of Asia.
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A later voyage to Florida in 1528, led by Pánfilo de Narváez, ended in disaster and shipwreck. A handful of survivors from this tragic voyage traveled overland across what is now the southwestern United States and Mexico. Their travels opened even more land to Spanish claims and settlement.
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Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan set out from Spain in 1519 with a fleet of five ships to discover a western sea route to the Spice Islands. En route he discovered what is now known as the Strait of Magellan and became the first European to cross the Pacific Ocean. The voyage was long and dangerous, and only one ship returned home three years later. Although it was laden with valuable spices from the East, only 18 of the fleet’s original crew of 270 returned with the ship.
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He seized the Aztec ruler Moctezuma II, also known as Montezuma. Cortés captured and destroyed the great Aztec city of Tenochtitlán. The Spanish later built Mexico City on its ruins. Spanish horses and guns, unknown in the Americas, helped the Spanish defeat the great Aztec armies, as did a smallpox epidemic that swept through the Aztecs.
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They traveled from the Isthmus of Panama to the capital of the Inca Empire in what is now Peru. In 1533 Pizarro claimed the land from present-day Ecuador to Chile for Spain.
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Portugal did not regain its independence until 1640. Under Spanish control, Portugal's trade was greatly restricted and its overseas colonies were neglected. Only Brazil and Angola survived as major Portuguese colonies.
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It has been estimated that some 10 million Africans survived the horrible journey to slavery in the Americas. Many perished during the horrible journey of the Middle Passage. Others died even earlier, on the hard trip from the African interior to slave ships on the coast.
