Age of Exploration
Seeking new continents
The Age of Exploration was a period from roughly the 15th through 17th centuries when European powers launched maritime expeditions to chart unknown territories, establish trade routes, and claim colonial possessions.
Portuguese and Spanish voyages led the way, followed by Dutch, English, and French ventures.
The era reshaped global trade, spread European influence, and had devastating consequences for indigenous populations through conquest, disease, and enslavement.
- ColumbusOhio's seat of government
- Age of DiscoveryEuropean maritime expansion era
- caravelSmall Portuguese exploration ship
- tall shipsLarge traditional sailing vessels
- spicesAromatic food flavorings
Magellan · spice trade · navigation · compass · New World · conquistador · voyage · discovery · maritime · galleon · cartography · trade winds · unknown waters · trade routes · Indies · circumnavigation · scurvy · astrolabe
- explorationexpedition, expeditions, voyage, voyages, journey
- European HistoryFrench Revolution, Roman Empire, Byzantine Empire, Holy Roman Empire, Industrial Revolution
- erasera, epoch, age, bronze age, period
- historical erasStone Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age, Middle Ages, Renaissance
- Early ModernRenaissance, 1500s, 1600s, Reformation, sixteenth century
- 1500sElizabeth I, Shakespeare, Spanish Armada, Protestant Reformation, Martin Luther
Age of ExplorationDark Ages
Post-Roman European decline
Medieval period · Middle Ages · feudal period · Industrial Revolution · Digital Age
Age of Explorationisolationism
Policy avoiding foreign alliances
insularity · sakoku · hermit kingdom · withdrawal · contraction
Age of Explorationincuriosity
Absence of inquisitiveness
Dark Ages · obscurantism · anti-intellectualism · willful ignorance · dogmatism
ageing, ageless, explore, exploration, explorations, explorer, explorers, explores, explored