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Feb 6, 1418
prince henry started a navigation school
About 1418, Prince Henry started the first school for oceanic navigation along with an astronomical observatory at Sagres, Portugal. In this school, people were trained in nagivation, map-making, and science, in order to sail down the west of Africa -
Feb 6, 1486
Bartolomeu Dias rounds the southern tip of Africa
Bartolomeu Dias was a Portugese navigator whose 1487-88 Atlantic voyage around the southern tip of Africa opened sea routes between Europe and Asia -
Feb 6, 1492
Christopher Columbus reaches the Caribbean
Christopher and everyone else believed that if they went west that they would get to asia. little did he know that he had descovered new land. -
Feb 6, 1494
Spain and Portugal sign the Treaty of Tordesillas
In 1494, Spain and Portugal signed the Treaty of Tordesillas, in which they agreed to divide the Western Hemisphere between them -
Feb 6, 1497
• Vasco da Gama reaches the port of Calicut on the Indian Ocean
On Wednesday (November 8) we cast anchor in this bay, and we remained there eight days, cleaning the ships, mending the sails, and taking in wood. The river Samtiagua (S. Thiago) enters the bay four leagues to the S.E. of the anchorage. It comes from the interior (sertao), is about a stone's throw across at the mouth, and from two to three fathoms in depth at all states of the tide --Vasco da Gama -
Feb 6, 1521
Spain begins settlements in the Philippines
Spanish colonization and settlement began with the arrival of Miguel López de Legazpi's expedition on February 13, 1565 who established the first permanent settlement of San Miguel on the island of Cebu.The expedition continued northward reaching the bay of Manila on the island of Luzon on June 24, 1571,where they established a new town and thus began an era of Spanish colonization that lasted for more than three centuries -
Feb 7, 1521
• Ferdinand Magellan leads a Spanish expedition to the Philippines
Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese in the service of the Spanish crown, was looking for a westward route to the to the Spice Islands of Indonesia. On March 16, 1521, Magellan's expedition landed on Homonhon island in the Philippines. He was the first European to reach the islands -
• The Dutch establish a trading center on Java
It may have been the first megacorporation,ti have quasi-governmental power, including the ability to wage war, imprison and execute convicts,negotiate treaties, coin money, and establish colonies -
France sets up its own East India Company
The first state-sponsored French voyage to the Indies happened in 1603, a voyage by Paulmier de Gonneville of Honfleur. French king Henry IV directed the first Compagnie des Indes Orientales, granting the firm a 15-year monopoly of the Indies trade.] This precursor to Colbert's later Compagnie des Indes Orientales.
