Age of Exploration

The informal period from the 1400s to the 1700s when Europeans sailed the ocean to new lands.

Here’s a list of some of the places Europeans visited (“discovered”) during this period.

• The western coast of Africa and the Cape of Good Hope (Portugal)
• A sea route to India (Portugal)
• Central and North America (Italy/Spain)
• Present-day Canada (Italy/English)
• Japan (Portugal)
• Brazil (Portugal)
• Mexico and Peru (Spain)
• Circumnavigation of the entire globe (Portugal)

At the end of this period, humans had – for the first time – a basic knowledge of all the major land masses on the globe. There were fewer “unknown areas,” and shipping had advanced to the point where trans-ocean voyages were common and relatively reliable.