Age of Discovery

==Overview==
The Portuguese began systematically exploring the Atlantic coast of Africa in 1418, under the sponsorship of Infante Dom Henrique ([[Henry the Navigator|Prince Henry]]). In 1488, [[Bartolomeu Dias]] reached the Indian Ocean by this route.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.infoplease.com/biography/var/bartolomeudias.html |title=Bartolomeu Dias |website=infoplease |publisher=Sandbox Networks, Inc. |access-date=29 May 2015 |archive-date=21 May 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150521004353/http://www.infoplease.com/biography/var/bartolomeudias.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 1492, the [[Catholic Monarchs]] of [[Crown of Castile|Castile]] and [[Crown of Aragon|Aragon]] funded [[Genoa|Genoese]] mariner [[Christopher Columbus]]'s ({{lang-it|Cristoforo Colombo}}) plan to sail west to reach the [[Indies]] by crossing the Atlantic. Columbus encountered a continent uncharted by Europeans (though it had begun to be explored and [[Norse colonization of North America|was temporarily colonized by the Norse]] starting some 500 years earlier).<ref>{{Cite web|title=BBC – History – Leif Erikson|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/erikson_leif.shtml|access-date=2020-10-06|website=www.bbc.co.uk|language=en-GB|archive-date=2012-01-20|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120120185237/http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/erikson_leif.shtml|url-status=live}}</ref> Later, it was called America after [[Amerigo Vespucci]], a trader working for [[Kingdom of Portugal|Portugal]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Fernández-Armesto|first=Felipe|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j9khjlWQPWUC|title=Amerigo: The Man Who Gave His Name to America|publisher=Random House|year=2007|isbn=978-1-4000-6281-2|location=New York|page=73|language=en|access-date=2020-10-06|archive-date=2022-04-18|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220418214948/https://books.google.com/books?id=j9khjlWQPWUC|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>Davidson, M. H. (1997). ''Columbus Then and Now: A Life Re-examined. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press'', p. 417.</ref> Portugal quickly claimed those lands under the terms of the [[Treaty of Alcáçovas]] but Castile was able to persuade the Pope, who was himself a Castilian, to issue [[Bulls of Donation|four papal bulls]] to divide the world into two regions of exploration, where each kingdom had exclusive rights to claim newly discovered lands. These were modified by the [[Treaty of Tordesillas]], ratified by [[Pope Julius II]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.fsmitha.com/h3/h17-am.html|title=Columbus to the Caribbean|work=fsmitha.com|access-date=2016-01-31|archive-date=2022-03-31|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220331075921/http://www.fsmitha.com/h3/h17-am.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.history.com/topics/exploration/christopher-columbus|title=Christopher Columbus – Exploration|work=history.com|access-date=2016-01-31|archive-date=2022-06-24|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220624033839/https://www.history.com/topics/exploration/christopher-columbus|url-status=live}}</ref>
[[File:Philip II's realms in 1598.svg|thumb|Map with the main travels of the Age of Discovery]]
{| class="wikitable sortable collapsible collapsed"
|+ Major discoveries
|-
! Major discovery/<br />Destination || Main explorer !! Year !! Funding by
|-
|[[Congo River]] || [[Diogo Cão]] || 1482 || [[John II of Portugal]]
|-
|[[Cape of Good Hope]] <br />[[Indian Ocean]] || [[Bartolomeu Dias|Dias]] || 1488 || [[John II of Portugal]]
|-
| [[West Indies]]||[[Christopher Columbus|Columbus]]|| 1492|| [[Ferdinand and Isabella]]
|-
| [[India]]||[[Vasco da Gama]] || 1498 || [[Manuel I of Portugal|Manuel I]]
|-
| [[Brazil]]||[[Pedro Álvares Cabral|Cabral]] || 1500 || [[Manuel I of Portugal|Manuel I]]
|-
| [[Maluku Islands|Spice Islands]] <br />[[Australasia]] ([[Western Pacific Ocean]])|| [[Afonso de Albuquerque|Albuquerque]], [[António de Abreu|Abreu]], and [[Francisco Serrão|Serrão]] || 1512 ||[[Manuel I of Portugal|Manuel I]]
|-
| [[Pacific Ocean]] || [[Vasco Balboa]] || 1513  || [[Ferdinand II of Aragon]]
|-
| [[Strait of Magellan]]  || [[Ferdinand Magellan|Magellan]] ||  1520 || [[Charles I of Spain]]
|- 
| [[Philippines]]  || [[Ferdinand Magellan|Magellan]] ||  1521 || [[Charles I of Spain]]
|-
| [[Circumnavigation]] || [[Ferdinand Magellan|Magellan]] and [[Juan Sebastián Elcano|Elcano]] || 1522 || [[Charles I of Spain]]
|-
| [[Australia]] || [[Willem Janszoon]] || 1606 || [[United East India Company|United East<br /> India Company]]
|-
| [[New Zealand]] || [[Abel Tasman]] || 1642 || [[United East India Company|United East<br /> India Company]]
|-
| Islands Near [[Antarctica]] || [[James Cook]]|| 1773|| [[George III]]
|-
| [[Hawaii]] || [[James Cook]]|| 1778 || [[George III]]
|}

In 1498, a Portuguese expedition commanded by [[Vasco da Gama]] reached India by sailing around Africa, opening up direct trade with Asia.<ref>Diffie, Bailey W., and George D. Winius, "Foundations of the Portuguese Empire, 1415–1580", p. 176</ref> While other exploratory fleets were sent from Portugal to northern North America, in the following years [[Portuguese India Armadas]] also extended this Eastern oceanic route, touching sometimes South America and by this way opening a circuit from the New World to Asia (starting in 1500, under the command of [[Pedro Álvares Cabral]]), and explored islands in the South Atlantic and Southern Indian Oceans. Soon, the Portuguese sailed further eastward, to the valuable [[Maluku Islands|Spice Islands]] in 1512, landing in China one year later. [[Nanban trade|Japan was reached]] by the Portuguese only in 1543. In 1513, Spanish [[Vasco Núñez de Balboa]] crossed the [[Isthmus of Panama]] and reached the "other sea" from the New World. Thus, Europe first received news of the eastern and western Pacific within a one-year span around 1512. East and west exploration overlapped in 1522, when a Castilian (Spanish) expedition, led by Portuguese navigator [[Ferdinand Magellan]] and, after his death in [[Mactan|Mactan island]] in present-day [[Philippines]], by Spanish Basque navigator [[Juan Sebastián Elcano]], sailing westward, completed the first circumnavigation of the world,<ref>Zweig, Stefan, "Conqueror of the Seas – The Story of Magellan", Read Books, 2007, {{ISBN|1-4067-6006-4}}</ref> while Spanish ''[[conquistador]]s'' explored the interior of the Americas, and later, some of the South Pacific islands. The main objective of this voyage was to disrupt Portuguese trade in the East.

Since 1495, the French, the English, and the [[Dutch Republic|Dutch]] entered the race of exploration after learning of these exploits, defying the Iberian monopoly on maritime trade by searching for new routes, first to the western coasts of North and South America, through the first English and French expeditions (starting with the first expedition of [[John Cabot]] in 1497 to the north, in the service of England, followed by the French expeditions to South America and later to North America), and into the Pacific Ocean around South America, but eventually by following the Portuguese around Africa into the Indian Ocean; discovering Australia in 1606, New Zealand in 1642, and Hawaii in 1778. Meanwhile, from the 1580s to the 1640s, Russians explored and conquered almost the whole of [[Russian conquest of Siberia|Siberia]] and Alaska in the 1730s.