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Prince Henry of Portugal, interested in the riches available within sub-Saharan Africa, funded expeditions to Africa. These expeditions yealded not only riches in the form of gold but also slaves. This also marked the start of mass European expansion.
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Portuguese explorers (funded by prince Henry) reach the Cape Verde islands in their expedition to Africa in search of riches. These islands would eventually be built up and serve as a checkpoint for further African and south Asian expeditions.
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Columbus discovers a brand new continent in his search for a better trade route to India under the Spanish flag. This new continent would later be entrenched in European war over land rights.
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After crossing the Americas, Vasco Nunez de Balboa discovers a new ocean, naming it the Pacific as he thought it to be calmer than the previous Atlantic. This discovery supported the round earth idea and countries began looking for better trade routes to china through the Americas.
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Jorge Alvarez, a Portuguese sailor, finally sails to china from a Portuguese outpost. This illustrates one of the two great goals of the Age of Exploration being finding naval trade routes with India and China.
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Although he died halfway through his journey, Magellan and his crew sail under south America and around the entire world, proving that the earth is a sphere. This is not only a great accomplishment but also further fueled the search for new trade routes.
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French gain control over eastern Canada and with the English right to their south there is bound to be tension between these two European powers. This leads to further fighting within the new world as well as a race to see who can claim and control more land within North America.
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After their leader dies, they get lost in a storm, and end up enslaved by Mississippi natives for years, the expedition originally sent to discover Florida makes their way back to Europe. Over this whole journey, Vacas and his men explored many places in North America that where undiscovered at the time. This led many Europeans to further attempt to push into the Americas.
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The discovery of Australia marked the last continent of the map. This land was never directly conquered by the English as they used it as a penile district instead.
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At this point all of the major continents and land masses were mapped leading many countries to start fighting and conquering over land they already knew of (Globalization). This sort of marks the end of the age of exploration as many explorers where no longer funded by governments.