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For nearly two centuries, countries from all over Europe participated in a series of exploratory trips overseas to previously-settled territories. This period of time in European history is known as the Age of Exploration, also commonly referred to as the Age of Discovery. In total, five European nations would throw their hats into the exploration ring in an attempt to find trade routes, merchant opportunities, and - ultimately - lands to conquer.

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As various European countries race to join in on global exploration voyages, it was clear that improvements in navigation would be needed. This extended to the speed of ships, materials used in ship building, and the tools that explorers could use for more accurate navigation. The earliest explorers had made glaring mistakes in the past, having arrived in one territory thinking it was another, and so on. These inventions thus allowed for more precise exploration of new lands, leading to cultural diffusion and a phenomenon later known as the “Columbian Exchange”.

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The impact it had between the two hemispheres can be viewed as both positive and negative. People were introduced to new foods, new ways of life, and different elements of culture, yet on the other hand, it also exposed groups of people to diseases that their bodies had never encountered, and therefore could not fight off.

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Beginning in the 16th century and lasting until the earlier years of the 19th century, a relationship based upon trade formed across the Atlantic Ocean, prompted mainly by the slave trade. The parties involved were Africa, America, and Europe, and just like during the Columbian Exchange, there was a diffusion not only of cultural elements and goods, but of disease and suffering. Africa was the continent most negatively impacted by the Triangle of Trade, as it came to be known due to the trade routes that formed a triangle in the ocean. America and Europe, however, saw more positive outcomes as a result of this triangular relationship.

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The first country to have a documented influx of African slaves was Portugal, who began trading and subsequently kidnapping Africans not long after the trade relationships formed by Prince Henry the Navigator and others. The European explorers were able to coax African kings into kidnapping people from other kingdoms by promising them goods such as guns and rum. Once in Portugal, enslaved African men, women, and children were forced to endure grueling hours of labor.