age of exploration
Time of discovery
The age of exploration refers to the period from roughly the 15th through the 17th centuries when European powers launched maritime expeditions to chart unknown waters, establish trade routes, and claim territories.
Portuguese and Spanish voyages led the way, followed by Dutch, English, and French expansion.
The era brought contact between previously isolated civilizations—and with it, colonization, the slave trade, and devastating disease transmission to indigenous populations.
- Christopher ColumbusNavigator who found the Americas
- RenaissanceEuropean cultural reawakening
- New WorldWestern Hemisphere landmasses
- uncharted watersUnexplored or unfamiliar territory
- Cape of Good HopeSouth African peninsula tip
Vasco da Gama · Americas · Columbian Exchange · Pacific Ocean · sea route · Strait of Magellan · sailing ships · Henry the Navigator · Ferdinand Magellan · Silk Road · trade winds · maritime navigation · Amerigo Vespucci · Gold Coast · Mercantilism · Spain · Portugal · Spanish Armada
- Dutch EmpireDutch East India Company, VOC, Batavia, New Amsterdam, Suriname
- historical mapshistorical maps, atlas, ancient maps, atlases, antique maps
- old mapsancient maps, vintage maps, atlas, portolan charts, printed maps
ageing, ageless, ageism, explore, exploration, explorations, exploratory, explorer, explorers