Age of Discovery

The Age of Discovery (c. 1418 – c. 1620), also known as the Age of Exploration, was a time when seafarers from European countries sailed across the world. This period lasted from about the 15th to the 17th century. It helped connect parts of the world that had never met before. It started when explorers found new sea routes and lands far away from Europe.

Many important voyages happened during this time. Portuguese explorers found a sea route to India, and Spanish explorers like Christopher Columbus reached the Americas. These journeys opened up new trade routes and led to the creation of colonial empires. The Age of Discovery changed how people saw the world and began the process of globalization, which means the world started to become more connected.

The exchange of plants, animals, and ideas between Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas had big effects. This time period was very important for mapping the world and learning about faraway places.

Concept

Main article: Discovery (observation)

The idea of discovery is often talked about, especially in history books. Some historians, like J. H. Parry, call this time the Age of Reconnaissance. They say it was a time when people learned more about the world and improved their understanding of science.

Anthony Pagden talks about how Europeans felt when they saw new places in 1492. He says these new sights were like a "discovery" because they were things Europeans did not know about before. Some people think the real importance was not just seeing new lands, but how Europeans tried to understand and fit this new knowledge into what they already believed.

Overview

In 1418, sailors from Portugal started exploring the coast of Africa, led by Prince Henry the Navigator. In 1488, Bartolomeu Dias sailed to the Indian Ocean.

In 1492, Spain paid for a trip led by Christopher Columbus, an Italian sailor. He sailed west to reach the Indies but found a new continent named America after Amerigo Vespucci. In 1498, Vasco da Gama, another Portuguese sailor, reached India by sailing around Africa, opening new trade with Asia.

Other countries joined the search for new routes. The Dutch, French, and English sent their own explorers. They found new lands like Australia, New Zealand, and Hawaii. Russians also explored and claimed parts of Siberia and Alaska later.

Background

See also: Early world maps and Chronology of European exploration of Asia

Rise of European trade

After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, Europe was less connected to lands far to the east. The Muslim world controlled many areas in the Middle East and North Africa. The Christian Crusades didn’t win back the Holy Land, but they helped Europe learn more about the Middle East and its valuable goods. From the 1200s, Europe’s economy grew because rivers and seas made trade easier.

Before the 1100s, trade east of the Strait of Gibraltar was hard because Muslim groups controlled the land, including parts of Spain, and some Christian cities like Venice and Genoa controlled trade. Things changed when Christian groups took back parts of Spain and when the naval power of the Fatimid Caliphate weakened. This helped Italian traders grow rich and powerful. The Hanseatic League, a group of trading towns in northern Europe, also helped trade grow. In the 1200s, the best cloth in Europe came from places like Flanders, which brought more traders from the Mediterranean to Europe.

Technology: Ship design and the compass

New technologies helped Europe explore. The magnetic compass, invented in China, was used in Europe by the 1100s. It let sailors find their way even when the sun and stars weren’t visible.

Ships also changed. Northern European ships and Mediterranean ships were different at first. But over time, they mixed their styles. By the 1400s, ships had three masts with different kinds of sails. Another common ship was the caravel, which could use different sails. Not many wrecks from this time have been found, so we still have a lot to learn about these ships.

Early geographical knowledge and maps

Old maps and stories told Europeans a little about Asia, but much was unknown. In 1154, a mapmaker named Muhammad al-Idrisi made a world map, but Africa was still a mystery. By 1400, a new map based on an old Roman writer, Ptolemy, reached Italy. This map changed how people saw the world, even though it had some wrong ideas.

Medieval European travel (1241–1438)

Before big ocean trips, some Europeans traveled over land to places like Mongolia and China. The Mongols had made travel safer in some areas. Travelers like Marco Polo wrote about their trips to Asia. These trips didn’t change Europe much right away, though, because routes became harder to use and diseases made travel difficult.

Religion

Religion was a big reason Europeans wanted to explore new places. They wanted to spread Christianity and often mixed this with their desire to trade and control new lands. Religious groups like the Franciscans and Jesuits helped lead these efforts.

Chinese missions (1405–1433)

Further information: Ming treasure voyages and Chinese exploration

Between 1405 and 1433, China’s emperor Yongle sent big fleets across the Indian Ocean under admiral Zheng He. These trips visited places like Arabia, East Africa, and India. They traded goods like gold and silk for new things such as ostriches and ivory. After the emperor died, these trips stopped, and China turned away from the world.

Atlantic Ocean (1419–1507)

From the 8th until the 15th century, the Republic of Venice and neighboring maritime republics controlled trade with the Middle East. The silk and spice trade, involving spices, incense, herbs, drugs, and opium, made these cities very rich. Spices were valuable and used in medicine, rituals, cosmetics, and food.

Muslim traders controlled routes in the Indian Ocean, trading with places in the Far East and shipping to India, mainly Calicut, then to Hormuz in the Persian Gulf and Jeddah in the Red Sea. Later, wars and unsafe paths blocked these routes. Trade from India mostly went into the Red Sea.

Because of wars and the lack of money, Europeans turned to trade in North Africa. They traded wheat, olive oil, and looked for silver and gold. European mines were running out, and the lack of bullion led to new banking systems. Genoese communities settled in Bruges and England, then in Portugal.

European sailing was mostly near land, using maps called portolan charts. They used the compass and new maps and stars for navigation. They used Arab tools like the astrolabe and quadrant for celestial navigation.

Portuguese exploration

In 1317, King Denis of Portugal agreed with Genoese sailor Manuel Pessanha, naming him first admiral of the Portuguese Navy to protect the country. The bubonic plague caused fewer people, so people turned to the sea for fishing and trade. Between 1325 and 1357, Afonso IV of Portugal encouraged trade and ordered early explorations. The Canary Islands, known to Genoese traders, were claimed by Portugal.

To control trade, Europeans tried to force trade through their ports. In 1415, the Portuguese captured Ceuta in North Africa to control trade along the African coast. Young prince Henry the Navigator wanted to trade directly with West Africa and find new lands. He sponsored voyages along the coast of Mauritania, reaching the Atlantic islands of Madeira (1419) and the Azores (1427).

Europeans did not know what was beyond Cape Non on the African coast. Myths spoke of monsters, but Henry’s voyages proved it could be done, reaching Cape Bojador in 1434 under Gil Eanes.

From 1440, small ships called caravels were used to explore the coast of Africa. These ships were good for coastlines and sailing. For navigation, the Portuguese used charts of the stars. These charts, published in 1496 by Abraham Zacuto, helped find latitude. Finding longitude was harder. Using caravels, exploration continued south, reaching Senegal and Cape Verde Peninsula in 1445 and 1446. In 1453, the fall of Constantinople changed trade with the East. In 1455, Pope Nicholas V gave Portugal control over lands found beyond Cape Bojador. In the 1460s, the Gulf of Guinea was reached.

After Prince Henry

In 1460, Pedro de Sintra reached Sierra Leone. After Prince Henry died in 1460, exploration was given to merchant Fernão Gomes in 1469. With his support, explorers reached the Southern Hemisphere and islands in the Gulf of Guinea, including São Tomé and Príncipe and Elmina in 1471.

In 1478, a battle happened near Elmina between Portugal and Castile over trade. Portugal won, and the Catholic Monarchs recognized Portuguese control in 1479.

In 1481, Portugal built a trading post at São Jorge da Mina. In 1482, the Congo River was explored by Diogo Cão, who reached Cape Cross in 1486.

In 1488, Bartolomeu Dias sailed around the southern tip of Africa, reaching the Great Fish River. This showed the Indian Ocean could be reached from the Atlantic. The cape was later named the Cape of Good Hope.

Some think Portuguese explorer João Vaz Corte-Real may have reached Newfoundland in 1473, but this is not certain.

Spanish exploration: Columbus's landfall in the Americas

Portugal's rival, Castile, began to rule the Canary Islands in 1402 but was busy with other matters. After uniting with Aragon, Spain looked for new trade routes. In 1492, they funded Christopher Columbus’s voyage to reach "the Indies" by sailing west. On 3 August 1492, Columbus left from Palos de la Frontera. He reached land on 12 October, calling it San Salvador (Guanahani) in The Bahamas. He explored Cuba and Hispaniola, leaving men at a settlement called La Navidad in Haiti. He returned to Spain in 1493.

Columbus and other Spanish explorers were disappointed as the Caribbean islands had little to trade. The focus turned to colonization.

Treaty of Tordesillas (1494)

After Columbus’s return, Spain and Portugal needed to avoid conflict. In 1493, the Pope said lands west of a line 100 leagues west of the Azores or Cape Verde belonged to Spain. Portugal was unhappy as this prevented reaching India. In 1494, the Treaty of Tordesillas moved the line west, giving Portugal control of Africa, Asia, and eastern South America (Brazil). Spain received lands west of the line, including the islands Columbus found.

In 1500, Pedro Álvares Cabral claimed Brazil for Portugal. This was accepted by Spain.

The Americas: The New World

North America

In 1497, John Cabot sailed from Bristol and reached North America, possibly Newfoundland. Before Cabot, Norse explorers had settlements in Newfoundland and Greenland, but they were abandoned.

In 1499, João Fernandes Lavrador and Pero de Barcelos reached Labrador. Between 1499 and 1502, the Corte Real brothers explored Greenland and Newfoundland.

The "True Indies" and Brazil

In 1497, Portugal sent a fleet to find a route to the Indies. In 1499, news spread that Portugal reached the "true Indies".

Columbus’s third expedition in 1498 began Spanish colonization in the West Indies on Hispaniola. Columbus still believed he had reached Asia.

As trade grew between Seville and the West Indies, knowledge of the Caribbean islands, Central America, and northern South America increased. In 1499–1500, Alonso de Ojeda and Amerigo Vespucci reached Guyana. Vespucci sailed south, reaching Brazil.

Vicente Yáñez Pinzon reached Brazil in 1500, exploring to Pernambuco. The land was too far east for Spain to claim, but it sparked interest.

In 1500, Pedro Álvares Cabral reached Brazil, naming it Ilha de Vera Cruz. He believed it was an island. Some think Portugal may have known of South America earlier.

Accounts by Amerigo Vespucci suggested the new lands were not the Indies but a “New World”. The Americas were named after him in 1507.

From 1501 to 1502, Gonçalo Coelho sailed south along South America to Rio de Janeiro. Vespucci’s account said they reached far south.

In 1503, Binot Paulmier de Gonneville reached Brazil in 1504.

From 1511 to 1512, João de Lisboa and Estevão de Fróis reached Uruguay and Argentina.

In 1519, Ferdinand Magellan led an expedition that found a way to the Pacific through the Strait of Magellan.

From 1524 to 1525, Aleixo Garcia led an expedition that reached parts of the Inca Empire in the Andes.

Indian Ocean (1497–1513)

Vasco da Gama's route to India

See also: Portuguese India Armadas

Protected from Spanish competition by the Treaty of Tordesillas, Portuguese explorers kept sailing. In 1497, four ships and about 170 men left Lisbon under Vasco da Gama. By December, they passed the Great Fish River and entered the Indian Ocean. On May 20, 1498, they arrived at Calicut in India. Two years later, Gama and a small crew returned to Portugal, the first ships to sail directly from Europe to India. Their journey is celebrated in the Os Lusíadas, an epic poem by Luís de Camões.

In 1500, a larger fleet of thirteen ships and about 1500 men was sent to India. Under Pedro Álvares Cabral, they landed on the Brazilian coast, giving Portugal its claim. Later, one of Cabral's ships reached Madagascar in 1501. In the same year, Lourenço de Almeida landed in Sri Lanka. The first trading posts were set up at Kochi and Calicut in 1501 and then Goa in 1510.

The "Spice Islands" and China

The Portuguese kept sailing east from India, reaching Southeast Asia, including Malacca. In 1511, Afonso de Albuquerque took Malacca for Portugal. East of Malacca, Albuquerque sent diplomats, including Duarte Fernandes as the first European envoy to the Kingdom of Siam (now Thailand).

The Portuguese reached the "spice islands," mainly the Banda, the only place in the world with nutmeg and cloves. In early 1512, an expedition led by António de Abreu arrived in Banda. In May 1513, Jorge Álvares reached China, landing on Lintin Island. In 1516, Rafael Perestrello became the first European to trade in Guangzhou. After some problems, the Portuguese were allowed to stay in Macau in 1557.

Pacific Ocean (1513–1529)

See also: Far East

Balboa's expedition to the Pacific Ocean

In 1513, Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa heard about a big ocean far to the west. With a few men and local guides, he traveled through a hard jungle. After a long trip, Balboa became the first European to see the Pacific Ocean from the Americas. His group explored a little along the coast and named some places, sharing what they found with others.

Subsequent developments to the east

From 1515 to 1516, Spanish ships sailed along the coast of South America, reaching a place they called Río de la Plata.

First circumnavigation

Main article: Magellan–Elcano circumnavigation

By 1516, some Portuguese explorers worked with Spain. Ferdinand Magellan led a group of ships with a big dream: to sail all the way around the world. They traveled south around South America and entered the Pacific Ocean. After many challenges, the ship Victoria returned to Spain in 1522, becoming the first to circle the globe.

This trip gave Spain important knowledge about the world’s oceans. Later trips used this information to travel between faraway places, connecting Mexico with the Philippines.

Westward and eastward exploration meet

After Magellan’s voyage, both Portugal and Spain sent more explorers to the Pacific. They met in places like the Spice Islands, which caused some disagreements. To settle where each country’s lands should be, leaders from both nations talked and agreed in 1529.

From 1525 to 1528, Portuguese ships explored many islands in the Pacific. Spanish explorer Hernán Cortés also sent ships across the Pacific, discovering new islands and routes.

Inland Spanish expeditions (1519–1532)

Rumors of new lands far to the northwest of Hispaniola reached Spain around 1511. This made King Ferdinand want to explore these areas before others did. While Portugal was exploring far away seas, Spain focused on exploring places nearby in search of treasures like gold.

The explorers, called conquistadors, were not regular soldiers. They came from many different backgrounds, such as workers, traders, church leaders, and even some freed slaves. They often paid for their own supplies or borrowed money, promising to share any profits they found. Though they had little training, many had been on earlier trips.

In the Americas, the Spanish met large groups of native people and sometimes made friends with them through small trips. After setting up Spanish rule and finding wealth, the leaders focused on building Spanish schools and churches. They also started farms where native people had to work. Finding huge amounts of silver changed the economies of places like Mexico and Peru, and also helped Spain become stronger.

During this time, diseases from Europe, like smallpox, caused many native people to get very sick.

In 1512, King Ferdinand asked Juan Ponce de León to look for new lands after he explored Puerto Rico. Ponce de León set out with three ships and about 200 men in 1513. In April, they saw land and named it La Florida because it was the Easter season. They believed they had found an island, but later learned it was part of a bigger land. The exact place where they first landed is still debated. They traveled along the coast, reaching places like Biscayne Bay and Dry Tortugas, and tried to go around Cuba before returning.

Cortés' Mexico and the Aztec Empire

Main article: Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire

See also: Spanish conquest of Yucatán and Spanish conquest of Guatemala

In 1517, the leader of Cuba, Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar, sent a group led by Hernández de Córdoba to explore the Yucatán Peninsula. They landed where Mayans invited them, but were attacked that night. Only a few made it back.

Velázquez then sent another trip led by his nephew Juan de Grijalva, who traveled south along the coast to Tabasco, part of the Aztec Empire.

In 1518, Velázquez gave command to Hernán Cortés, but later took it away. In early 1519, Cortés went anyway with about 11 ships, 500 men, 13 horses, and some cannons. He landed in Trinidad and then Tabasco, where he won a battle. One of the people he met, Marina (La Malinche), spoke both the Aztec language and Maya, and helped Cortés understand.

In July, Cortés' men took over Veracruz, and Cortés placed himself under the orders of the new king Charles I of Spain. Cortés asked to meet the Aztec emperor Moctezuma II, who refused. Cortés and his group, along with about 3,000 Tlaxcaltec allies, marched toward Tenochtitlan.

On November 8, Cortés and his army entered Tenochtitlan, where Moctezuma welcomed them. Moctezuma gave gifts, which Cortés took. When Cortés learned his men were attacked on the coast, he took Moctezuma as a prisoner.

Back in Tenochtitlán, one of Cortés' men caused trouble, leading to anger from the local people. Cortés hurried back, but Moctezuma was killed. The Spanish fled to Tlaxcala during a hard escape. After gathering more allies and help from Cuba, Cortés surrounded Tenochtitlán and captured its leader Cuauhtémoc in 1521. The Aztec Empire ended, and Cortés claimed the city for Spain, naming it Mexico City.

Pizarro's Peru and the Inca Empire

Main article: Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire

An early trip to explore western South America began in 1522 by Pascual de Andagoya. Local people told him about a rich land called Pirú. Though he fell ill and returned to Panama, he shared stories about "Pirú" and the legendary El Dorado. These stories, along with reports of Hernán Cortés' success, caught the attention of Francisco Pizarro.

Pizarro had traveled with Balboa across the Isthmus of Panama. In 1524, he partnered with a priest Hernando de Luque and a soldier Diego de Almagro to explore the south, sharing any profits.

In September 1524, their first trip began with 80 men and 40 horses. They stopped in Colombia due to bad weather, hunger, and fights with locals. Two years later, they tried again with two ships, 160 men, and horses. They reached the San Juan River, where Pizarro's guide found a raft from Tumbes carrying valuable items like gold, silver, and textiles.

Almagro and Luque went for more help, but the new governor ordered them back. They stayed with Pizarro instead. At Isla de Gallo, Pizarro drew a line in the sand, and thirteen men stayed to try for Peru's riches.

They sailed south and by April 1528 reached Tumbes in northwestern Peru, where locals welcomed them warmly. They returned to Panama to prepare a final trip. In spring 1528, Pizarro went to Spain and met King Charles I, who agreed to support him. Pizarro gathered friends and family, including his brothers and Francisco de Orellana, who later explored the Amazon River.

Pizarro's final trip left Panama in December 1530 with three ships and 180 men. They landed near Ecuador and traveled to Tumbes, which was destroyed. They moved inland and set up the first Spanish settlement in Peru, San Miguel de Piura. After marching two months, they met Atahualpa, who refused to obey them. Though Pizarro had fewer than 200 men against Atahualpa's soldiers, he attacked and captured Atahualpa.

In 1533, Pizarro invaded Cuzco with help from local troops. He wrote to King Charles I:

This city is the greatest and the finest ever seen in this country or anywhere in the Indies ... it is so beautiful and has such fine buildings that it would be remarkable even in Spain. — Francisco Pizarro

After taking Peru, Pizarro first made Jauja the capital, but it was too high in the mountains. He then founded the city of Lima on January 18, 1535, which he considered one of his greatest achievements.

Major new trade routes (1542–1565)

In 1543, three Portuguese traders became the first Westerners to reach and trade with Japan. They arrived at Tanegashima, where the locals were impressed by firearms and began making them.

The Spanish conquest of the Philippines was ordered by Philip II of Spain. The expedition set sail in November 1564. After some time on the islands, the leader sent a sailor back to find a better return route. He sailed from Cebu in June 1565 and traveled far north to catch favorable winds. His journey took him to the coast near Cape Mendocino, California, and then south to the port of Acapulco on October 8, 1565. This voyage helped create a new sea route between Mexico and the Philippines.

This new route was used for many years by the Manila galleons, linking China, the Americas, and Europe through both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.

Northern European involvement (16th–17th centuries)

See also: Tonnage and poundage

European nations outside Iberia did not recognize the Treaty of Tordesillas between Portugal and Castile, nor did they recognize Pope Alexander VI's donation of the Spanish finds in the New World. France, the Netherlands, and England each had a long maritime tradition and had been engaging in privateering. Despite Iberian protections, the new technologies and maps soon made their way north.

After the marriage of Henry VIII of England and Catherine of Aragon failed to produce a male heir and Henry failed to obtain a papal dispensation to annul his marriage, he broke with the Roman Catholic Church and established himself as head of the Church of England. This added religious conflict to political conflict. When much of The Netherlands became Protestant, it sought political and religious independence from Catholic Spain. In 1568, the Dutch rebelled against the rule of Philip II of Spain leading to the Eighty Years' War. The war between England and Spain also broke out. In 1580, Philip II became King of Portugal, as heir to its Crown. Although he ruled Portugal and its empire as separate from the Spanish Empire, the union of the crowns produced a Catholic superpower, which England and the Netherlands challenged.

In the eighty-year Dutch War of Independence, Philip's troops conquered the important trading cities of Bruges and Ghent. Antwerp, then the most important port in the world, fell in 1585.^{[citation needed]} The Protestant population was given two years to settle affairs before leaving the city. Many settled in Amsterdam. Those were mainly skilled craftsmen, rich merchants of the port cities and refugees that fled religious persecution, particularly Sephardic Jews from Portugal and Spain and, later, the Huguenots from France. The Pilgrim Fathers also spent time there before going to the New World. This mass immigration was an important driving force: a small port in 1585, Amsterdam quickly transformed into one of the most important commercial centres in the world. After the failure of the Spanish Armada in 1588, there was a huge expansion of maritime trade even though the defeat of the English Armada would confirm the naval supremacy of the Spanish navy over the emergent competitors.

Dutch maritime power rose quickly as Dutch sailors, skilled in navigation and mapmaking, engaged with Portuguese voyages. In 1592, Cornelis de Houtman gathered information on the Spice Islands in Lisbon. The same year, Jan Huyghen van Linschoten published a detailed travel report in Amsterdam, providing navigation instructions for reaching the East Indies and Japan. Following this, Houtman led the Dutch's first exploratory voyage, discovering a new route from Madagascar to the Sunda Strait and securing a treaty with the Banten Sultan. The Dutch also demonstrated their maritime strength by seizing Malacca from Portugal in 1641, following a series of battles that began in 1602.

Dutch and British interest, fed on new information, led to a movement of commercial expansion, and the foundation of English (1600) and Dutch (1602) chartered companies. Dutch, French, and English sent ships which flouted the Portuguese monopoly, concentrated mostly on the coastal areas, which proved unable to defend against such a vast and dispersed venture.

Exploring North America

The 1497 English expedition authorized by Henry VII of England was led by Italian Venetian John Cabot (Giovanni Caboto); it was the first of a series of French and English missions exploring North America. Mariners from the Italian peninsula played an important role in early explorations, most especially Genoese mariner Christopher Columbus. With its major conquests of central Mexico and Peru and discoveries of silver, Spain put limited efforts into exploring the northern part of the Americas; its resources were concentrated in Central and South America where more wealth had been found. These other European expeditions were initially motivated by the same idea as Columbus, namely a westerly shortcut to the Asian mainland. After the existence of "another ocean" (the Pacific) was confirmed by Balboa in 1513, there still remained the motivation of potentially finding an oceanic Northwest Passage for Asian trade. This was not discovered until the early twentieth century, but other possibilities were found, although nothing on the scale of the spectacular ones of the Spanish. In the early 17th century colonists from a number of Northern European states began to settle on the east coast of North America. Between 1520 and 1521, the Portuguese João Álvares Fagundes, accompanied by couples of mainland Portugal and the Azores, explored Newfoundland and Nova Scotia (possibly reaching the Bay of Fundy on the Minas Basin), and established a fishing colony on the Cape Breton Island that would last until at least the 1570s or near the end of the century.

In 1524, Italian Giovanni da Verrazzano sailed under the authority of Francis I of France, who was motivated by indignation over the division of the world between Portuguese and Spanish. Verrazzano explored the Atlantic Coast of North America, from South Carolina to Newfoundland, and was the first recorded European to visit what would later become the Virginia Colony and the United States. In the same year Estêvão Gomes, a Portuguese cartographer who had sailed in Ferdinand Magellan's fleet, explored Nova Scotia, sailing South through Maine, where he entered what is now New York Harbor, the Hudson River and eventually reached Florida in August 1525. As a result of his expedition, the 1529 Diogo Ribeiro world map outlines the East coast of North America almost perfectly. From 1534 to 1536, French explorer Jacques Cartier, believed to have accompanied Verrazzano to Nova Scotia and Brazil, was the first European to travel inland in North America, describing the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, which he named "The Country of Canadas", after Iroquois names, claiming what is now Canada for Francis I of France.

Europeans explored the Pacific Coast beginning in the mid-16th century. Spaniards Francisco de Ulloa explored the Pacific coast of present-day Mexico including the Gulf of California, proving that Baja California was a peninsula. Despite his report based on first-hand information, the myth persisted in Europe that California was an island. His account provided the first recorded use of the name "California". João Rodrigues Cabrilho, a Portuguese navigator sailing for the Spanish Crown, was the first European to set foot in California, landing on 28 September 1542, on the shores of San Diego Bay and claiming California for Spain. He also landed on San Miguel, one of the Channel Islands, and continued as far north as Point Reyes on the mainland. After his death, the crew continued exploring as far north as Oregon.

The English privateer Francis Drake sailed along the coast in 1579 north of Cabrillo's landing site while circumnavigating the world. Drake had a long and largely successful career attacking Spanish settlements in the Caribbean islands and the mainland so for the English, he was a great hero and fervent Protestant, but for the Spanish, he was "a frightening monster." Drake played a major role in the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 but led an armada himself to the Spanish Caribbean that was unsuccessful in dislodging the Spanish. On 5 June 1579, the ship briefly made first landfall at South Cove, Cape Arago, just south of Coos Bay, Oregon, and then sailed south while searching for a suitable harbor to repair his damaged ship. On 17 June, Drake and his crew found a protected cove when they landed on the Pacific coast of what is now Northern California near Point Reyes. While ashore, he claimed the area for Queen Elizabeth I of England as Nova Albion or New Albion. To document and assert his claim, Drake posted an engraved plate of brass to claim sovereignty for Queen Elizabeth and her successors on the throne. Drake's landfalls on the west coast of North America are one small part of his 1577–1580 circumnavigation of the globe, the first captain of his own ship to do so. Drake died in 1596 off the coast of Panama, following injuries from a raid.

From 1609 to 1611, after several voyages on behalf of English merchants to explore a prospective Northeast Passage to India, English mariner Henry Hudson, under the auspices of the Dutch East India Company (VOC), explored the region around present-day New York City, while looking for a western route to Asia. He explored the Hudson River and laid the foundation for Dutch colonization of the region. Hudson's final expedition ranged farther north in search of the Northwest Passage, leading to his discovery of the Hudson Strait and Hudson Bay. After wintering in James Bay, Hudson tried to press on with his voyage in the spring of 1611, but his crew mutinied and they cast him adrift.

Search for a northern route

France, the Netherlands, and England sought a sea route to Asia after finding none through Africa or South America. With no route through the Americas, they focused on northern passages, driving European exploration of the Arctic coasts. The idea of a link between the Atlantic and Pacific was first proposed by Russian diplomat Gerasimov in 1525, though Russian Pomors had explored parts of the route as early as the 11th century.

In 1553, English explorer Hugh Willoughby with chief pilot Richard Chancellor were sent out with three vessels in search of a passage by London's Company of Merchant Adventurers to New Lands. During the voyage across the Barents Sea, Willoughby thought he saw islands to the north, and islands called Willoughby's Land were shown on maps published by Plancius and Mercator into the 1640s. The vessels were separated by "terrible whirlwinds" in the Norwegian Sea and Willoughby sailed into a bay near the present border between Finland and Russia. His ships with the frozen crews, including Captain Willoughby and his journal, were found by Russian fishermen a year later. Richard Chancellor was able to drop anchor in the White Sea and make his way overland to Moscow and Ivan the Terrible's court, opening trade with Russia and the Company of Merchant Adventurers became the Muscovy Company.

In June 1576, English mariner Martin Frobisher led an expedition consisting of three ships and 35 men to search for a north-west passage around North America. The voyage was supported by the Muscovy Company, the same merchants that hired Hugh Willoughby to find a northeast passage above Russia. Violent storms sank one ship and forced another to turn back but Frobisher and the remaining ship reached the coast of Labrador in July. A few days later they came upon the mouth of what is now Frobisher Bay. Frobisher believed it to be the entrance to a north-west passage and named it Frobisher's Strait and claimed Baffin Island for Queen Elizabeth. After some preliminary exploration, Frobisher returned to England. He commanded two subsequent voyages in 1577 and 1578 but failed to find the hoped-for passage. Frobisher brought to England his ships laden with ore, but it was found to be worthless and damaged his reputation as an explorer. He remains an important early historical figure in Canada.

Barentsz' Arctic exploration

On 5 June 1594, Dutch cartographer Willem Barentsz departed from Texel in a fleet of three ships to enter the Kara Sea, with the hopes of finding the Northeast Passage above Siberia. At Williams Island the crew encountered a polar bear for the first time. They managed to bring it on board, but the bear rampaged and was killed. Barentsz reached the west coast of Novaya Zemlya and followed it northward, before being forced to turn back in the face of large icebergs.

The following year, Prince Maurice of Orange named him chief pilot of a new expedition of six ships, loaded with merchant wares that the Dutch hoped to trade with China. The party came across Samoyed "wild men" but eventually turned back upon discovering the Kara Sea frozen. In 1596, the States-General offered a high reward for anybody who successfully navigated the Northeast Passage. The Town Council of Amsterdam purchased and outfitted two small ships, captained by Jan Rijp and Jacob van Heemskerck, to search for the elusive channel, under the command of Barents. They set off in May, and in June discovered Bear Island and Spitsbergen, sighting its northwest coast. They saw a large bay, later called Raudfjorden and entered Magdalenefjorden, which they named Tusk Bay, sailing into the northern entrance of Forlandsundet, which they called Keerwyck, but were forced to turn back because of a shoal. On 28 June they rounded the northern point of Prins Karls Forland, which they named Vogelhoek, on account of a large number of birds, and sailed south, passing Isfjorden and Bellsund, which were labelled on Barentsz's chart as Grooten Inwyck and Inwyck.

The ships once again reached Bear Island on 1 July, which led to a disagreement. They parted ways, with Barentsz continuing northeast, while Rijp headed north. Barentsz reached Novaya Zemlya and, to avoid becoming entrapped in ice, headed for the Kara Strait but became stuck within the icebergs and floes. Stranded, the 16-man crew was forced to spend the winter on the ice. The crew used lumber from their ship to build a lodge they called Het Behouden Huys (The Kept House). Dealing with extreme cold, they used merchant fabrics to make additional blankets and clothing and caught Arctic foxes in primitive traps, as well as polar bears. When June arrived, and the ice had still not loosened its grip on the ship, scurvy-ridden survivors took two small boats out into the sea. Barentsz died at sea on 20 June 1597, while studying charts. It took seven more weeks for the boats to reach Kola where they were rescued by a Russian merchant vessel. Only 12 crewmen remained, reaching Amsterdam in November. Two of Barentsz' crewmembers later published their journals, Jan Huyghen van Linschoten, who had accompanied him on the first two voyages, and Gerrit de Veer who had acted as the ship's carpenter on the last.

Dutch Australia and New Zealand

Terra Australis Ignota (Latin for 'the unknown land of the south') was a hypothetical continent appearing on European maps from the 15th to the 18th centuries, with roots in a notion introduced by Aristotle. It was depicted on the mid-16th-century Dieppe maps, where its coastline appeared just south of the islands of the East Indies; it was often elaborately charted, with a wealth of fictitious detail. The discoveries reduced the area where the continent could be found. Many cartographers held to Aristotle's opinion, like Gerardus Mercator (1569) and Alexander Dalrymple even so late as 1767 argued for its existence, with such arguments as that there should be a large landmass in the Southern Hemisphere as a counterweight to the known landmasses in the Northern Hemisphere. As new lands were discovered, they were often assumed to be parts of this hypothetical continent.

Juan Fernández, sailing from Chile in 1576, claimed he had discovered the Southern Continent. Luis Váez de Torres, a Galician navigator working for the Spanish Crown, proved the existence of a passage south of New Guinea, now known as Torres Strait. Pedro Fernandes de Queirós, a Portuguese navigator sailing for the Spanish Crown, saw a large island south of New Guinea in 1606, which he named Austrialia del Espiritu Santo (transl. Southern-Austrian Land of the Holy Spirit). He represented this to the King of Spain as the Terra Australis incognita, but it was present-day Vanuatu rather than Australia or Antarctica.

Dutch navigator and colonial governor, Willem Janszoon sailed from the Netherlands for the East Indies for the third time on 18 December 1603, as captain of Duyfken (or Duijfken, meaning 'Little Dove'), one of twelve ships of the great fleet of Steven van der Hagen. Once in the Indies, Janszoon was sent to search for other outlets of trade, particularly in "the great land of Nova Guinea and other East and Southlands." On 18 November 1605, Duyfken sailed from Bantam to the coast of western New Guinea. Janszoon then crossed the eastern end of the Arafura Sea, without becoming aware of the Torres Strait, into the Gulf of Carpentaria. On 26 February 1606, he made landfall at the Pennefather River on the western shore of Cape York in Queensland, near the modern town of Weipa. This is the first recorded European landfall on the Australian continent. Janszoon proceeded to chart some 320 kilometres (199 mi) of the coastline, which he thought was a southerly extension of New Guinea. In 1615, Jacob Le Maire and Willem Schouten's rounding of Cape Horn proved that Tierra del Fuego was a relatively small island.

From 1642 to 1644, Abel Tasman, also a Dutch explorer and merchant in the service of the VOC, circumnavigated New Holland proving that Australia was not part of the mythical southern continent. He was the first known European expedition to reach the islands of Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania) and New Zealand and to sight the Fiji islands, which he did in 1643. Tasman, his navigator Visscher, and his merchant Gilsemans also mapped substantial portions of Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific islands.

Russian exploration of Siberia (1581–1660)

Main articles: Russian conquest of Siberia, Conquest of the Khanate of Sibir, Siberian River Routes, and List of Russian explorers

In the 1500s, Russia grew by taking over lands near the Ural Mountains. Rich merchants called the Stroganovs helped lead this expansion. They set up farms, hunting areas, and trade with local tribes.

Conquest of the Khanate of Sibir

In 1581, a leader named Yermak started a journey into Siberia. After some battles, he took control of the Khanate of Sibir. Khan Kuchum attacked back, and Yermak was hurt. He tried to escape by swimming but sadly drowned. Even so, Russian explorers kept moving forward and took back the lands Yermak had reached.

Siberian river routes

In the 1600s, Russian explorers, often Cossacks, continued to move east looking for valuable furs. They traveled along many rivers, setting up new settlements like Turukhansk and Yeniseysk.

Between 1620 and 1624, a fur hunter named Demid Pyanda traveled a long way along rivers, possibly reaching the Lena River. In 1627, Pyotr Beketov reached Buryatia and set up the first Russian settlement there. He also founded Yakutsk in 1632, which became a base for more journeys.

Russians reach the Pacific

In 1639, Ivan Moskvitin became the first Russian to reach the Pacific Ocean, discovering the Sea of Okhotsk. Later, Vassili Poyarkov traveled down the Amur River and reached its mouth. In 1648, Semyon Dezhnyov and his group were the first to sail through the Bering Strait, discovering new lands like Chukotka.

From 1649 to 1650, Yerofey Khabarov explored the Amur River again, facing resistance but managing to map parts of it. By the mid-1600s, Russians had explored most of Siberia, setting the stage for future discoveries in the Arctic and beyond.

Global impact

Main articles: Columbian exchange, History of colonialism, and Globalization

Further information: Major explorations after the Age of Discovery

When Europeans explored new parts of the world, they met people from different places. This meeting, called the Columbian exchange, changed life everywhere. Europeans brought animals like cattle and horses to new places. They also learned about new foods like potatoes and tobacco from the people they met. These exchanges helped people all over the world share goods and ideas.

The Europeans wanted to trade and settle in new lands. This led to big changes for many people. In places like North America, Africa, and Australia, many local people were treated unfairly. They lost their homes and way of life. Diseases from Europe also made many people very sick.

New foods from the Americas, like maize and manioc, became important in places like Africa. They helped people grow more food. In China, trade with Europeans brought in lots of silver. This changed their money and economy. Japan also traded with Europeans and learned new technologies and ideas.

Economic impact in Europe

Main articles: Commercial Revolution, Renaissance, Renaissance in the Low Countries, and Great Divergence

As Europeans brought more goods from around the world, their markets changed. New foods and products like sugar and spices became popular. The center of trade moved from places like Italy to new cities in Western Europe, like Antwerp and Amsterdam. This time brought big changes to how people lived and worked in Europe.