Age of Discovery
Maritime exploration period
The Age of Discovery was the period from roughly the 15th through 17th centuries when European powers launched voyages of exploration across the Atlantic, around Africa, and into Asia.
Portuguese and Spanish expeditions led the way, followed by English, Dutch, and French ventures.
The era established global trade routes and colonial empires while devastating indigenous populations through conquest and disease.
Also called the Age of Exploration.
- caravelSmall Portuguese exploration ship
- ship navigationDirecting a vessel's course
- Christopher ColumbusNavigator who found the Americas
- mercantilismTrade policy favoring exports
- missionaryReligious outreach worker
Vasco da Gama · compass · circumnavigation · portolan charts · cartography · world map · astrolabe · triangular trade · spice trade · Columbian Exchange · conquistador · indigenous peoples · native populations · sea voyage · Cape of Good Hope · ethnography · Magellan · syncretism
- explorationexploration, explore, expedition, expeditions, voyage
- Age of ExplorationColumbus, Marco Polo, exploration, explorers, expeditions
- Maritime ExplorationColumbus, Magellan, voyage, navigator, circumnavigation
- PortugalLisbon, Porto, Algarve, Oporto, Madeira
- erasera, epoch, age, bronze age, period
- historical erasStone Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age, Middle Ages, Renaissance
Age of Discoverysakoku
Tokugawa-era isolation policy
isolationism · insularity · hermit kingdom · parochialism · introversion
Age of DiscoveryDark Ages
Post-Roman European decline
Industrial Revolution · Middle Ages · Digital Age · Bronze Age · Stone Age