The Age of European Exploration

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The Age of European Exploration

The age of exploration was filled with courageous voyagers and

conquistadores from all over Europe, much like today, there was much

competition for land rights. The main disputes were between Spain and

Portugal. And these are the representatives from not only these two

countries, but surrounding ones as well.

Christopher Columbus was a sea captain from Genoa. He first tried

to convince Portugal, then Spain to sponsor a voyage to Asia across the

Atlantic. Columbus thought that the voyage would take two months, others

said four months, but he left with enough food and supplies for only two

months. He landed in the West Indes (Bahamas, Haiti, Cuba) when the two

months of supplies ran out. Their voyage began on August 3, 1492, from

Palos, Spain and ended on October 12 when land was sighted at the Americas.

Amerigo Vespucci, an Italian that represented the Medici Bank in

Spain, chartered the coastline of Central America and described this as the

"Mundus Novus", meaning "New World". In 1507, a German carto...

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