# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The sea route east by south to Cathay

Henry the Navigator, prince of Portugal, initiated the first great enterprise of the Age of Discovery-the search for a sea route east by south to Cathay. His motives were mixed. He was curious about the world; he was interested in new navigational aids and better ship design and was eager to test them; he was also a Crusader and hoped that, by sailing south and then east along the coast of Africa, Arab power in North Africa could be attacked from the rear. The promotion of profitable trade was yet another motive; he aimed to divert the Guinea trade in gold and ivory away from its routes across the Sahara to the Moors of Barbary (North Africa) and instead channel it via the sea route to Portugal.

Expedition after expedition was sent forth throughout the 15th century to explore the coast of Africa. In 1445 the Portuguese navigator Dinís Dias reached the mouth of the Sénégal, which "men say comes from the Nile, being one of the most glorious rivers of Earth, flowing from the Garden of Eden and the earthly paradise." Once the desert coast had been passed, the sailors pushed on: in 1455 and 1456 Alvise Ca' da Mosto made voyages to Gambia and the Cape Verde Islands. Prince Henry died in 1460 after a career that had brought the colonization of the Madeira Islands and the Azores and the traversal of the African coast to Sierra Leone. Henry's captain, Diogo Cão, discovered the Congo River in 1482. All seemed promising; trade was good with the riverine peoples, and the coast was trending hopefully eastward. Then the disappointing fact was realized: the head of a great gulf had been reached, and, beyond, the coast seemed to stretch endlessly southward. Yet, when Columbus sought backing for his plan to sail westward across the Atlantic to the Indies, he was refused-"seeing that King John II [of Portugal] ordered the coast of Africa to be explored with the intention of going by that route to India."

King John II sought to establish two routes: the first, a land and sea route through Egypt and Ethiopia to the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean and, the second, a sea route around the southern shores of Africa, the latter an act of faith, since Ptolemy's map showed a landlocked Indian Ocean. In 1487, a Portuguese emissary, Pêro da Covilhã, successfully followed the first route; but, on returning to Cairo, he reported that, in order to travel to India, the Portuguese "could navigate by their coasts and the seas of Guinea." In the same year, another Portuguese navigator, Bartolomeu Dias, found encouraging evidence that this was so. In 1487 he rounded the Cape of Storms in such bad weather that he did not see it, but he satisfied himself that the coast was now trending northeastward; before turning back, he reached the Great Fish River, in what is now South Africa. On the return voyage, he sighted the Cape and set up a pillar upon it to mark its discovery.

The seaway was now open, but eight years were to elapse before it was exploited. In 1492 Columbus had apparently reached the East by a much easier route. By the end of the decade, however, doubts of the validity of Columbus's claim were current. Interest was therefore renewed in establishing the sea route south by east to the known riches of India. In 1497 a Portuguese captain, Vasco da Gama, sailed in command of a fleet under instructions to reach Calicut (Kozhikode), on India's west coast. This he did after a magnificent voyage around the Cape of Storms (which he renamed the Cape of Good Hope) and along the unknown coast of East Africa. Yet another Portuguese fleet set out in 1500, this one being under the command of Pedro Álvarez Cabral; on the advice of da Gama, Cabral steered southwestward to avoid the calms of the Guinea coast; thus, en route for Calicut, Brazil was discovered. Soon trading depots, known as factories, were built along the African coast, at the strategic entrances to the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, and along the shores of the Indian peninsula. In 1511 the Portuguese established a base at Malacca (now Melaka, Malaysia), commanding the straits into the China Sea; in 1511 and 1512, the Moluccas, or Spice Islands, and Java were reached; in 1557 the trading port of Macau was founded at the mouth of the Canton River. Europe had arrived in the East. It was in the end the Portuguese, not the Turks, who destroyed the commercial supremacy of the Italian cities, which had been based on a monopoly of Europe's trade with the East by land. But Portugal was soon overextended; it was therefore the Dutch, the English, and the French who in the long run reaped the harvest of Portuguese enterprise.

Some idea of the knowledge that these trading explorers brought to the common store may be gained by a study of contemporary maps. The map of the German Henricus Martellus, published in 1492, shows the shores of North Africa and of the Gulf of Guinea more or less correctly and was probably taken from numerous seamen's charts. The delineation of the west coast of southern Africa from the Guinea Gulf to the Cape suggests a knowledge of the charts of the expedition of Bartolomeu Dias. The coastlines of the Indian Ocean are largely Ptolemaic with two exceptions: first, the Indian Ocean is no longer landlocked; and second, the Malay Peninsula is shown twice-once according to Ptolemy and once again, presumably, according to Marco Polo. The Contarini map of 1506 shows further advances; the shape of Africa is generally accurate, and there is new knowledge of the Indian Ocean, although it is curiously treated. Peninsular India (on which Cananor and Calicut are named) is shown; although too small, it is, however, recognizable. There is even an indication to the east of it of the Bay of Bengal, with a great river running into it. Eastward of this is Ptolemy's India, with the huge island of Taprobane-a muddled representation of the Indian peninsula and Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). East again, as on the map of Henricus Martellus, the Malay Peninsula appears twice. Ptolemy's bonds were hard to break.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
European exploration - The Age of Discovery

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In the 100 years from the mid-15th to the mid-16th century, a combination of circumstances stimulated men to seek new routes, and it was new routes rather than new lands that filled the minds of kings and commoners, scholars and seamen.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Age of Exploration: Crash Course European History #4

# data[].attributes.body
The desire for glory and immortalization among these Spanish conquistadors led the likes of Hernan Cortes and Francisco Pizarro to conquer American civilizations such as the Aztecs and the Incas. And it worked. In the end, Cortes and Pizarro will be remembered, maybe for violently destroying these American civilizations, but they will still be remembered.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
This lead musket ball shows that the Spanish conquistadors had access to gunpowder and other powerful projectile weapons.

# data[].attributes.body
While the natives only had bows and arrows and sometimes even no fighting experience, the Spanish conquistadors had access to gunpowder and other powerful weapons which allowed them to dominate the native civilizations when it came to warfare.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
This Spanish Pikeman Helmet offered the Spanish conquistadors with extra protection from the natives.

# data[].attributes.body
The Pikeman Helmet is an example of glory because of its association of war. It resembles power, and its technological advantage over the natives.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
John Eliot, Puritan Missionary. Circa AD: 1600's. Source: Posterrazi.

# data[].attributes.body
Using religion as a pretext to discover and spread the word of god, European countries expedited to different parts of the world. Spain and Portugal paved the way for catholicism to spread to modern day countries such as Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, and more.

# data[].attributes.body
Pilgrims, English people who escaped to America also because of religion, wanted freedom from the English rule. Some escaped to the Netherlands, but most escaped to the Americas. Setting up the "Plymouth Colony", it resided 160 people who later defied their homeland under the name of god.

# data[].attributes.body
This cross shows that the Spanish conquistadors were able to convert some of the natives to Christianity, which was ultimately one of the goals of these conquistadors.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Trade maps of notable European cities and their connections to colonies around the world. 

# data[].attributes.body
After the conquest of Constantinople, exploration drived the European Powers of Portugal and Spain to fine another route for the Spice Trade instead of making trade flow through Constantinople. In this way they could find more trade routes, fuel their curiosity about the world, and weaken the Ottoman Turks.

Wealth fueled the Church with funds however it didn't exactly do much for missionaries. However if missionaries couldn't pay for their own food and other expenses the Church would cover their cost and since wealth and money fueled the church, colonization may have involuntarily allowed for the Church to grow stronger.

# data[].attributes.body
Silver soon became one of the main reasons to colonize and explore. Mainly because of the inevitability of silver, and it allowed for trade to pass through China who only accepted silver.

Arable land became a main drive for Europeans to explore the New World, allowing them to expand plantations, agriculture, and begin a new life in the New World as well as allowing for grain, cotton, sugar, tobacco, and cocoa to be shipped back to Europe in order to feed it's own population.

Wealth created prestige as European rulers rode off the deep end of their vast amounts of silver, food, and gold. Wealth was a sign of status and power, allowing European Powers to leverage their wealth over others and dominate the continent.