World history1415 – 160017 events
The Age of Discovery
From Ceuta to the Manila galleons — two centuries in which European ships crossed the oceans and bound the world together by sea
anonymous Portuguese (1502) · Public domain · Source
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17 events in this theme
John I of Portugal seized Ceuta, a Muslim port across the Strait of Gibraltar — often counted as the first step in Europe’s overseas expansion.
- 1418 – 1460Voyages of Henry the Navigator
Prince Henry of Portugal sponsored voyages that settled Madeira and the Azores and pushed exploration south along the West African coast.
Portugal’s Bartolomeu Dias sailed round the southern tip of Africa into the Indian Ocean, opening the way to India around Africa.
After Columbus’s voyages, crops, livestock, people and germs crossed between the Americas and Afro-Eurasia. Potatoes, maize and chili peppers spread worldwide, while epidemics devastated Indigenous American populations.
Sponsored by Spain, Christopher Columbus crossed the Atlantic and landed in the Bahamas.
Spain and Portugal agreed to divide newly discovered lands along a meridian in the Atlantic — the west to Spain, the east to Portugal.
- 1497 – 1499Vasco da Gama Reaches India
Portugal’s Vasco da Gama sailed round southern Africa and reached Calicut in India. A direct sea route from Europe to Asia was open, transforming world trade.
Bound for India, Cabral’s Portuguese fleet swung far west, sighted the Brazilian coast and claimed it for Portugal — the beginning of Portuguese Brazil.
- 1510 – 1511Portuguese Capture of Goa and Malacca
Portugal’s Afonso de Albuquerque took Goa in India and Malacca, the key to Southeast Asian trade. Portugal sought to control the Indian Ocean spice trade through a network of fortified ports.
- 1519 – 1522Magellan–Elcano Circumnavigation
Sponsored by Spain, Magellan’s fleet crossed the Atlantic and the Pacific westward. Magellan died in the Philippines, but Elcano brought the last ship home, completing the first voyage around the world.
- 1519 – 1521Spanish Conquest of the Aztec Empire
Spain’s Hernán Cortés, allied with Indigenous peoples hostile to the Aztecs, took the capital Tenochtitlan. The Aztec Empire fell and New Spain (Mexico) was founded.
- 1521Battle of Mactan
Lapulapu, chief of Mactan in the Philippines, repelled Magellan, who had come demanding baptism and submission. Magellan was killed in the fight.
- 1532 – 1533Spanish Conquest of the Inca Empire
Spain’s Francisco Pizarro entered an Inca Empire divided by civil war, captured and executed the emperor Atahualpa at Cajamarca, and took the capital Cusco, bringing down the empire.
A ship carrying Portuguese reached Tanegashima in Japan, bringing the first matchlock guns. Soon mass-produced in Japan, they transformed the wars of the Sengoku period and the Imjin War.
A mountain of silver, Potosí, was found in the Andean highlands of Spanish Peru. American silver flowed into Europe and Asia, binding the world economy together.
Portuguese merchants began to reside at Macau on the Pearl River estuary with Ming permission. Macau became a hub of trade linking China, Japan and Europe and a base for Christian missions.
- 1565 – 1815Manila Galleon Trade
Spain found a return route across the Pacific from the Philippines to Mexico and founded Manila. For 250 years galleons crossed the Pacific, exchanging American silver for Chinese silk and porcelain.
Key people
- Manuel I of Portugal1469 – 1521
King of Portugal who sent the voyages of Vasco da Gama and Cabral and built Portugal’s Asian trading empire
- Charles V1500 – 1558
King of Spain (as Charles I) and Holy Roman Emperor, who sponsored Magellan’s voyage and under whom the Aztec and Inca empires were conquered
- Prince Henry the Navigator1394 – 1460
Portuguese prince, son of John I, whose sponsorship of voyages down the West African coast opened the Age of Discovery
- Christopher Columbus1451 – 1506
Genoese navigator who, sponsored by Spain, crossed the Atlantic and reached the Americas in 1492
- Ferdinand Magellan1480 – 1521
Portuguese-born navigator who, sponsored by Spain, sailed west for the Spice Islands and was killed on Mactan in the Philippines in 1521
- John I of Portugal1357 – 1433
Founder of Portugal’s House of Aviz, who led the expedition to Ceuta in 1415
- Bartolomeu Dias1500
Portuguese navigator who first rounded the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of Africa in 1488
- Isabella I of Castile1451 – 1504
Queen of Castile who, ruling Spain with Ferdinand II of Aragon, conquered Granada and sponsored Columbus’s voyage
- Vasco da Gama1524
Portuguese navigator who rounded Africa and reached Calicut in India in 1498, opening the sea route to India
- Pedro Álvares Cabral1520
Portuguese navigator who reached Brazil on the way to India in 1500 and claimed it for Portugal
- Afonso de Albuquerque1453 – 1515
Governor of Portuguese India who took Goa, Malacca and Hormuz, linking Portugal’s naval bases across the Indian Ocean
- Juan Sebastián Elcano1526
Basque Spanish navigator who brought the Victoria home in 1522 after Magellan’s death, completing the first circumnavigation