
Explored by Norse voyagers before Columbus, the North Atlantic yielded settlements near Iceland and Greenland around 1000, and later Basques, Bretons, English, and Portuguese reached Newfoundland.
Follow Ibn Battuta's journeys from Tangier to Mecca and beyond—across North Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia, India, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, and China, documented in his travel stories.
Follow Marco Polo’s journeys from Venice through Central Asia to Kublai Khan’s court, then home via India and the Persian Gulf, revealing ancient China and the Mongol world.
Admiral Zheng He led seven expeditions to explore the Indian Ocean, guiding twenty eight thousand sailors aboard three hundred ships, to open commercial and diplomatic opportunities across Asia and Africa.
Explore how seasonal monsoon winds enabled 15th-century Indian Ocean trade, linking Arab, Indian, and Malaysian ports with spice islands like Sumatra and Java through Malacca toward China and Europe.
Explore how the Portuguese sought a sea route along Africa’s coast, founding forts and trading posts and naming coasts such as Ivory Coast, Gold Coast, and Slave Coast.
Vasco da Gama leads Portugal's first voyage to the Indies, rounding the Cape of Good Hope. The expedition faces hostile trade rivals and difficult diplomatic talks at Malindi and Calicut.
In the 15th century, Pêro da Covilhã and Afonso de Paiva voyage from Barcelona toward Alexandria and Aden to learn sailing conditions between Africa and India and seek Prester John.
Discover how Portuguese navigators leveraged the trade winds and two loops—from the Gulf of Guinea to the South Atlantic—using favorable currents to reach India.
The Age of Discovery, or the Age of Exploration (approximately from the beginning of the 15th century until the end of the 18 century, is an informal and loosely defined term for the period in European history in which extensive overseas exploration emerged as a powerful factor in European Culture and was the beginning of globalization. It also marks the rise of the period of widespread adoption in Europe of colonialism and mercantilisms national policies. Many lands previously unknown to Europeans were discovered by them during this period, though most were already inhabited. From the perspective of many non-Europeans, the Age of Discovery marked the arrival of invaders from previously unknown continents.
During the first half of the 15th century, the Portuguese were encouraged by Prince Henry the Navigator to explore the coasts of Africa.
In 1492 Christopher Columbus sailed further west into the Atlantic Ocean and discovered islands that he thought were close to Asia. A few years later, Vasco de Gama reached India by sailing around Southern Africa.
In 1522, one of the ships in Magellan’s fleet returned to Europe and brought proof that it was possible to circumnavigate the Earth.
In a few decades, the way that Europeans saw the world had been completely transformed.