The Age of Exploration and its impact (1400–1550)

Religion (spreading Christianity, finding Prester John); Rivalry (national competition, personal ambition); Knowledge (humanist curiosity, recovering classical geography); Trade (bypassing Ottoman middlemen for spices and gold). Shortcut: R-R-K-T.

It strengthened Ottoman control over the overland spice routes (the Silk Road), making eastern goods more expensive and less reliable for Western European merchants — intensifying pressure to find a direct sea route to Asia.

Prince Henry of Portugal (1394–1460). He never sailed himself but organised and funded systematic Portuguese voyages down the West African coast from the 1420s onward, gathering cartographers and pilots at Sagres. He gave Portugal a decades-long head-start over rival states.

Its lateen (triangular) sails could sail closer to the wind than square-rigged ships, making the northward return voyage against the Atlantic trade winds feasible. It was also light and shallow-draughted, ideal for exploring unknown coastlines.

Gil Eanes, on his fifteenth attempt commissioned by Henry the Navigator, sailed around the cape and returned safely. This broke the psychological barrier — sailors had believed the waters beyond were impassable. Every subsequent Portuguese voyage went further south.

1. The astrolabe — measured sun/star altitude to calculate latitude. 2. The magnetic compass — gave reliable direction away from land. 3. Portolan charts — detailed coastal maps extended to newly explored regions. Together they made leaving the coastline survivable.

It carried the first African gold and enslaved people to Portugal — proving the commercial model worked. It marked the beginning of what would grow into the Atlantic slave trade and gave investors confidence to fund further voyages.

A Portuguese fortified trading post (feitoria) established in 1482 on the Gold Coast (modern Ghana). It was the first European fort in sub-Saharan Africa and became the model for the network of coastal trading posts Portugal and later other European powers used to control maritime trade.

He rounded the Cape of Good Hope, proving Africa had a southern tip and that the Indian Ocean was reachable by sea from Europe. This opened the way for Vasco da Gama's 1498 voyage to India, which broke the Ottoman monopoly on eastern trade.

Portugal: became Europe's wealthiest state by 1500 via African gold, slaves, and later Asian spices; Lisbon replaced Venice as Europe's commercial hub. Castile: alarmed by Portuguese success, began funding its own explorers — ultimately commissioning Columbus in 1492 — triggering the rivalry that produced the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494).

A Portuguese royal trading house established in Lisbon (1452) to manage and profit from African trade. It organised the import of gold, ivory, and enslaved people from West Africa and gave the Portuguese crown direct control over exploration revenues.

Acknowledge his clear contribution (sustained funding, Sagres organisation, decades-long head-start for Portugal). Then test limits: structural pressures existed independently; the programme continued after his death; Castile faced identical pressures. Conclude: Henry was the most important individual factor but an accelerator of pre-existing forces, not their sole cause.

Columbus reached the Caribbean (Hispaniola) in 1492, sailing for Spain. He made four voyages (1492–1504) mapping the Caribbean and Central American coastlines, though he believed he had reached Asia.

Vespucci sailed South American coasts (1499–1502) and published accounts arguing the Americas were previously unknown continents, not Asia. His name was given to 'America' by cartographers.

John Cabot was an Italian navigator who sailed for England in 1497, reaching Newfoundland (North America). His voyage gave England its earliest claim to North America, even though it generated no immediate benefit.

Dias rounded the Cape of Good Hope — the southern tip of Africa — proving that a sea route from Europe to the Indian Ocean was possible. This was the critical breakthrough enabling da Gama's later voyage.

Da Gama sailed around Africa to Calicut (India), returning with spices worth 60 times the cost of the voyage. It gave Portugal direct access to Asian spices, bypassing Ottoman and Venetian middlemen and making Portugal the wealthiest European state for a generation.

Albuquerque captured key chokepoints: Goa (1510), Malacca (1511) and Hormuz (1515). By controlling these strategic ports, Portugal dominated Indian Ocean trade routes and shut out Muslim competitors.

A bilateral treaty between Spain and Portugal that drew a line 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands. Everything west belonged to Spain; everything east belonged to Portugal. It divided the non-European world between two powers and was backed by papal authority.

When Cabral accidentally reached Brazil in 1500, his landing point fell east of the Tordesillas line — the Portuguese sphere. This gave Portugal a legal claim to Brazil, which is why Brazil became (and remains) Portuguese-speaking.

The Columbian Exchange (term coined by historian Alfred Crosby) was the transfer of plants, animals, diseases and people between the Americas and Europe/Africa after 1492. East to West: wheat, horses, cattle, sheep, smallpox, measles, typhus. West to East: maize, potatoes, tomatoes, cacao, tobacco.

Atlantic and Indian Ocean trade grew at the expense of Mediterranean commerce. Antwerp replaced Venice as Europe's leading commercial hub as Portuguese spices and Atlantic goods were distributed northward. Italian city-states lost the trade advantages they had held for centuries.

The Price Revolution was sharp inflation across Europe from the mid-16th century, caused mainly by the massive inflow of silver from Spanish American mines (especially Potosí, from 1545). More silver in circulation reduced its value and pushed prices up across the continent.

Limited. France, England and the Dutch were not party to the treaty and ignored it. John Cabot sailed to Newfoundland for England in 1497 without Spanish consent. The treaty only mattered as long as Spain and Portugal had the military power to enforce it.