Voyages of Discovery and Exploration –

If we want to place the age of discoveries, we have to go back to the beginning of the fifteenth century, where there was a real rivalry between the main European powers, that is, between Spain, Portugal and England. Being able to open new trade routes led these countries to embark on an unprecedented maritime adventure. Fascinating journeys began in this situation, sometimes moved by a desire for adventure, others for commercial purposes, others with expansionist ideas, whatever the reason, we are going to enter this golden age dedicated to Voyages of Discovery and Explorationobjectives and consequences of this adventure.

Voyages of Discovery and Exploration | Background

Man throughout his history has been forced to look for new places to settle, the first explorations of which we have data, perhaps correspond to the Tartessian people, thanks to recent discoveries. Later Carthaginians, Greeks, Romans, etc. But historically we can only talk about the age of discoverys to the period located between the fifteenth and seventeenth century.

The Arab towns during the Late Middle Ages, obtained some products that they called species, with a pleasant aroma and flavor, such as cinnamon, vanilla, pepper, nutmeg, cloves, etc. These products came from areas as far away from Western Europe as India.

In order to bring Asian products to Europe, there were two fundamental ways, one maritime whose starting point was Egypt and Iraq, and another by landbetter known as silk road or spice route, depending on whether it was from India or China. The maritime route consisted of a true adventure, where the role of the monsoons was fundamental both for the arrival of the ships to India or China, and for the departure back to Europe.

The Silk Road started from Beijing and Shanghai. passing through Xian, from Xian the route runs through all of Asia, at this point, the route also divides in two.

On the one hand, it was possible to border the Caspian Sea to reach Baghdad or to reach Bukhara, passing through Delhi and Agra in India. After leaving Bukhara, Samarkand was reached, where it divided again into different roads, one towards Almaty and another bordering the Himalayas.

When the products finally arrived in Europe, they had doubled in value. Distribution throughout Europe was handled by a monopoly formed by Venetian and Genoese merchants, who made big business by reselling these products even more expensive.

With the closure of border crossings to the goods by the Turks after taking ConstantinopleIn the year 1453, trade between Asia and Europe was interrupted. The Silk Road was already unproductive, new ways had to be found to get there. Ways in which it could be negotiated directly without the need for intermediaries, or paying large sums of money for heavy tariffs.

Voyages of Discovery and Exploration | Motivation

According to some historians, the fall of the Eastern Roman Empire in the year 1453 marks the passage from the Middle Ages to the Modern Age, other historians place this step in the Discovery of America in 1492. But really the profound social, political and economic, would lead Europe to embark on a race of exploration and discovery with two fundamental protagonists Spain and Portugal.

In this context that we have described is that Portugal and Spain begin their expansion. But his particular situations differed, since Castile and Aragon until the end of the fifteenth century were fighting to expel the Arabs from their territory. Portugal, which had already achieved this in the thirteenth century, was the first nation to carry out overseas expeditions.

  • With the silk road in the hands of the turks, products such as silks, perfumes, precious stones, spices, etc. Ports such as Alexandria or Constantinople stopped reaching Europe and had fallen into the hands of the Turks. Was necessary discover a new route that will avoid those ports.
  • The monarchies are consolidating their power and building a great apparatus of governmentwhich in history we call Modern State. To support the large expenses of the state, they needed large incomes, which motivated them to organize these companies of expansion and search for conquests.
  • We are at a time when the mercantile capitalist economy is in full development. The leading social group in this boom in trade is the commercial and financial bourgeoisie which is interested in expanding its markets for European products and at the same time needs to obtain raw materials from the East.
  • Navigation, highly dependent on the position of the stars, becomes a safer navigation thanks to the appearance of a new and extraordinary navigation instrument such as the compass.
  • The ships were perfected, they became more resistant and larger, the caravels appear. These technological advances allowed to venture into trips more complex, thanks to the new techniques of navigation.
  • The first perceptions that hinted that the earth was round it contributed so that the great sailors and adventurers dared with a sea full of great dangers and that until now had marked the end of the world.
  • eagerness to adventure, wealth and notorietycaused many sailors to set off in search of adventure.
  • In a period in which Christianity was fighting against a growing Islamism and with the divine certainty of the existence of the kingdom of heaven, the effort to Christianize pagan lands.

Voyages of Discovery and Exploration | Portugal

The new advances in naval matters, the invention in the Iberian Peninsula, of the carrack first and the caravel later, made the Portuguese and Spanish navigators once again dream of a route that would take them to the mythical East. These new ships made it possible to make much longer trips and transport more cargo, avoiding always having to navigate close to the coast, thus allowing them to move farther out to sea.

Asia had become an obsession, the land routes only allowed the supply of small bundles, since these had to be transported by camels and did not allow an excessive load.

Europe ran out of gold. Without prosperous trade, the European economy was beginning to weaken. Spain, a country that was spending large sums of money in the war of the Reconquest, against the Muslims.

Muslims who unknowingly contributed to this inexorable expansion, the incorporation of the lateen sailwhich the Arabs used, fundamentally improved maneuverability of very large ships difficult to steer with traditional sails. Another contribution from the Arab world was diffusion of the ancients geographical knowledge that the classical Greeks They had been captured on small maps, which provided a first insight into the shape and extent of both the African and Asian continents.

The situation in Portugal was much more unsustainable, it needed by all means to find new routes, we cannot forget that Portugal was at the end of Europe and with only one border, a situation that was greatly damaging it, isolating it from the rest of Europe.

Quickly Portuguese like Henry the Navigator, founded a state institution where, in addition to dedicating it to cartography, he projected what was going to be a great state fleet. For its part, in the neighboring kingdom of Spain, this initiative was left to private hands, where the expenses and efforts invested in the reconquest left no room for the exploratory adventure.

The first incursions were Portuguese who sent different expeditions to enter an unknown sea, a sea that was once considered the end of the world, where a series of giant sea monsters destroyed every ship and giant waterfalls made them disappear, especially considering the idea of ​​​​a flat earth.

Entering these uncharted seas, in the year 1419, they arrived at Madeira Islands, eight years later they arrived to the Azores, annexing them to the crown of Portugal.

The trade routes that linked West Africa and Europe crossed the terrible Sahara desert, with routes controlled by Muslim states that, among other things, had been expelled from Portuguese lands and were being expelled from the kingdom of Spain, with what that relationships were not going through their best moment. Explore a route by sea to cross the terrible desert and communicate directly through Portugal the trade of sub-Saharan Africa with Europe, had become an obsession for Henry the Navigator.

Little by little, new forms of exploitation were discovered, such as wood, hunting and, of course, the slaves. After saving Cape Bojador, they undertook successive expeditions creating self-sufficient settlements such as Cape Verde, Angola or Namibia.

At last Portugal’s wish had come true, they had managed to overcome the barrier that the Sahara represented and, on the other hand, avoid North Africa controlled by Arab tribes. Senegal it becomes the African capital of the gold and slave markets.

They continued to move south, following the coastline until they reached in the year 1487after Bartolomé Díaz baptized as the Cape of Good Hope.

This fact was essential it was possible to reach the Indian Ocean. But the Indian Ocean was not exactly a calm sea, tropical currents made it almost impossible to access, but tenacity and perseverance managed to Basque of Gama sighted Mozambique, the cape had been doubled.

After Mozanbique, came Madagascar, and the dream longed for by Portugal arrived, reaching the coasts of India, with its own route. The next Portuguese interest was secure borders with Indiawith which he had to take possession of the bordering territories, beginning an era of exploration by land in order to establish cities and ports near India such as East Timor either Macau to be able to bring ports closer to China.

In this way start a portuguese empireestablishing colonies along the African and Arabian coast, they needed cities to support the Portuguese trade, the distances were very great, a company to which they dedicated a lot of effort and money.

Against this background, a gentleman of Genoese origin appears with a somewhat risky project but above all very expensive and uncertain. that man was called Christopher Columbus, who, aware of the companies that the Portuguese were carrying out, saw the possibility of financing his project. But the Portuguese, proud of what they had achieved and with impressive work and effort ahead, did not see the need to take risks in the face of this impressive project.

Voyages of Discovery and Exploration | Spain

As we have mentioned, all the western kingdoms of Europe needed to look for new trade routes. Taking into account that the existence of other lands beyond Europe and beyond Asia was not known, the idea until this…