It took the Portuguese only about fifty years to take control of the spice trade. They established trading colonies in Africa, the Persian Gulf, India and China.
Improvements in technology helped them succeed. One improvement was a new kind of ship. It could sail more easily through storms and winds.
Other inventions like the compass allowed them to sail out of sight of land. The Portuguese also armed their ships with modern cannon. They used these weapons to battle Muslim and East Asian traders.
The other European nations would not let Portugal control this spice trade for long, however. Spain's Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand agreed to provide ships, crew and supplies for an exploration by an Italian named Christopher Columbus.
Columbus thought the shortest way to reach the East was to sail west across the Atlantic Ocean. He was right. But he also was wrong. He believed the world was much smaller than it is. He did not imagine the existence of another continent -- and another huge ocean -- between Europe and East Asia.
Columbus and a crew of eighty-eight men left Spain on August third, fourteen ninety-two, in three ships: the Niña, the Pinta and the Santa Maria. By October twelfth, the sailors stood on land again on an island that Columbus named San Salvador.
He explored that island and the nearby islands of what are now known as Cuba and Hispaniola. He believed they were part of the coast of East Asia, which was then called the Indies. He called the people he found there Indians.
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2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25