Age of Discovery

=== Medieval European travel (1241–1438) ===
[[File:Silk route copy.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1.35|The [[Silk Road]] and [[spice trade]] routes later blocked by the [[Ottoman Empire]] in 1453, spurring exploration to find alternative sea routes]]
[[File:Travels of Marco Polo.png|thumb|right|upright=1.35|[[Marco Polo]]'s travels (1271–1295)]]

A prelude to the Age of Discovery was a series of European expeditions crossing [[Eurasia]] by land in the late Middle Ages.<ref>[[#silk-road 2008|silk-road 2008]], web.</ref> The [[Mongols]] had threatened Europe, but Mongol states also unified much of Eurasia and, from 1206 on, the ''[[Pax Mongolica]]'' allowed safe trade routes and communication lines stretching from the Middle East to China.<ref name="ReferenceA">[[#DeLamar 1992|DeLamar 1992]], p. 328.</ref><ref>[[#Abu-Lughod 1991|Abu-Lughod 1991]], p. 158.</ref> The close [[Italian city-states|Italian]] links to the [[Levant]] raised great curiosity and commercial interest in countries which lay further east.<ref>{{Cite book|title=City of Fortune|last=Crowley|first=Roger|date=2011|publisher=Faber & Faber|isbn=978-0-571-24595-6|edition=Main|language=en}}</ref>{{page needed|date=June 2017}}

There are a few accounts of merchants from North Africa and the Mediterranean region who traded in the Indian Ocean in late medieval times.<ref name="Paine_2013"/>

Christian embassies were sent as far as [[Karakorum]] during the [[Mongol invasions of the Levant]], from which they gained a greater understanding of the world.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Voegelin|first=Eric|title=The Mongol Orders of Submission to European Powers, 1245–1255 |journal=Byzantion|year=1940 |volume=15 |pages=378–413 |jstor=44168533 }}</ref><ref>Grousset, ''Empire'', pp. 280–281.</ref> The first of these travellers was [[Giovanni da Pian del Carpine]], dispatched by [[Pope Innocent IV]] to the [[Great Khan]], who journeyed to [[Mongolia]] and back from 1241 to 1247.<ref name="ReferenceA"/> About the same time, Russian prince [[Yaroslav of Vladimir]], and subsequently his sons [[Alexander Nevsky]] and [[Andrey II of Vladimir]], travelled to the Mongolian capital. Though having strong political implications, their journeys left no detailed accounts. Other travellers followed, like French [[André de Longjumeau]] and Flemish [[William of Rubruck]], who reached China through Central Asia.<ref>[[#Mancall 2006|Mancall 2006]], p. 14.</ref> [[Marco Polo]], a Venetian merchant, dictated an account of journeys throughout Asia from 1271 to 1295, describing being a guest at the [[Yuan dynasty]] court of [[Kublai Khan]] in ''[[The Travels of Marco Polo|Travels]]'', and it was read throughout Europe.<ref>[[#Mancall 2006|Mancall 2006]], p. 3.</ref>

The Muslim fleet guarding the Strait of Gibraltar was defeated by Genoa in 1291.<ref>{{cite book|title= The Victory of Reason: How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism and Western Success|url= https://archive.org/details/victoryofreasonh00star|url-access= registration|last= Stark|first= Rodney |year= 2005 |publisher =Random House Trade Paperbacks|location= New York |isbn=978-0-8129-7233-7|page=[https://archive.org/details/victoryofreasonh00star/page/137 137]}}</ref> In that year, the Genoese attempted their first Atlantic exploration attempt when merchant brothers [[Vadino and Ugolino Vivaldi]] sailed from Genoa with two galleys but disappeared off the Moroccan coast, feeding the fears of oceanic travel.<ref>[[#Ebrey 2006|Parry 2006]], p. 69.{{full citation needed|date=July 2021}}</ref><ref>[[#Diffie 1977|Diffie 1977]], pp. 24–25.</ref> From 1325 to 1354, a [[Morocco|Moroccan]] scholar from [[Tangier]], [[Ibn Battuta]], journeyed through North Africa, the Sahara desert, West Africa, Southern Europe, Eastern Europe, the Horn of Africa, the Middle East and Asia, having reached China. After returning, he dictated an account of his journeys to a scholar he met in Granada, ''[[The Rihla]]'' ("The Journey"),<ref>[[#Dunn 2004|Dunn 2004]], p. 310.</ref> the unheralded source on his adventures.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Chen |first=Yuan Julian |date=2021-10-11 |title=Between the Islamic and Chinese Universal Empires: The Ottoman Empire, Ming Dynasty, and Global Age of Explorations |url=https://www.academia.edu/59068575 |journal=Journal of Early Modern History |volume=25 |issue=5 |pages=422–456 |doi=10.1163/15700658-bja10030 |s2cid=244587800 |issn=1385-3783 |access-date=2022-03-24 |archive-date=2022-04-17 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220417192653/https://www.academia.edu/59068575 |url-status=live }}</ref> Between 1357 and 1371 a book of supposed travels compiled by [[John Mandeville]] acquired extraordinary popularity. Despite the unreliable and often fantastical nature of its accounts it was used as a reference<ref>[[#Mancall 1999|Mancall 1999]], p. 36.</ref> for the East, Egypt, and the Levant in general, asserting the old belief that Jerusalem was the [[Axis mundi|centre of the world]].

Following the period of [[Timurid relations with Europe]], in 1439, [[Niccolò de' Conti]] published an account of his travels as a Muslim merchant to India and Southeast Asia and, later in 1466–1472, Russian merchant [[Afanasy Nikitin]] of [[Tver]] travelled to India, which he described in his book ''[[A Journey Beyond the Three Seas]]''.

These overland journeys had little immediate effect. The [[Mongol Empire]] collapsed almost as quickly as it formed and soon the route to the east became more difficult and dangerous. The [[Black Death]] of the 14th century also blocked travel and trade.<ref>[[#DeLamar 1992|DeLamar 1992]], p. 329.</ref> The rise of the [[Ottoman Empire]] further limited the possibilities of European overland trade.