The Age of Exploration was a period from the late 1400s through the 1600s when European sailors crossed oceans they had never mapped, looking for new trade routes and land. Their voyages connected continents that had been separate for thousands of years, with lasting consequences for the people already living there.
This page covers a handful of well-documented voyages and their dates. It is not a full history of exploration in every region, and it does not cover overland trade routes such as the Silk Road.
What was the Age of Exploration?
The Age of Exploration was a burst of European sea voyages searching for new trade routes and land. Trade, competition between kingdoms, and new sailing technology like the compass all drove it forward.
Portugal and Spain led the earliest voyages, competing for routes to Asia and for territory in the Americas. Other European powers, including England, France and the Netherlands, followed within a century. A magnetic compass, of the kind explained on our compass page, was one of the basic tools that made ocean navigation possible.
This section is a broad overview. It doesn’t cover the technical details of period ships or navigation instruments.
Who was Christopher Columbus?
Christopher Columbus was an Italian navigator whose 1492 voyage, sponsored by the Spanish monarchy, opened sustained contact between Europe and the Americas, according to Britannica.
Columbus made four voyages across the Atlantic between 1492 and 1504. He was not the first European to reach North America, and he never reached the mainland of what is now the United States.
This section covers only the basic facts of his voyages, not the wider debate over how he is remembered, which is addressed in the next section.
Was Leif Erikson the first European in North America?
Leif Erikson, a Norse explorer, reached North America around 1000 CE, about 500 years before Columbus, according to The Mariners’ Museum.
Erikson sailed from Greenland and explored areas he called Helluland, Markland and Vinland, likely along the coast of present-day Canada. His voyage did not lead to lasting European settlement, so it had far less lasting impact on the Americas than the voyages that came after Columbus.
This section covers Erikson’s own voyage only, not the archaeology of Norse sites in North America.
Who was Ferdinand Magellan?
Ferdinand Magellan led the first expedition to sail all the way around the world, departing Spain in 1519. The voyage’s surviving ship returned in 1522, according to Britannica.
Magellan himself died during the expedition and did not complete the full circumnavigation. Command passed to Juan Sebastian del Cano, who brought the last ship home three years after the fleet had set out.
This section covers only the outcome of the voyage, not the day-by-day route.
What did exploration mean for Indigenous peoples?
European exploration and the colonization that followed brought devastating loss of life, disease, and loss of land for Indigenous peoples across the Americas.
The Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian states that in the 130 years following first contact, Native America lost 95 percent of its population, largely to disease, along with enslavement and the loss of resources and land, according to Native Knowledge 360. Warfare and forced relocation continued to disrupt Indigenous nations for centuries after first contact.
This section gives a brief summary of well-documented consequences. It does not cover the history of any single nation or community, which deserves more depth than a summary page can give.
Where does this fit in world history?
These voyages came near the end of the period covered on our medieval Europe page. European kingdoms had grown more centralized and were looking outward for trade and territory.
For more of our world history coverage, visit the world history section.
Sources
- Britannica. Christopher Columbus
- Britannica. Ferdinand Magellan: Circumnavigation of the Globe
- The Mariners’ Museum and Park. Leif Eriksson
- National Museum of the American Indian. Unlearning Columbus Day Myths