Age of Discovery

The Age of Discovery, also known as the Age of Exploration, was part of the early modern period and overlapped with the Age of Sail. It lasted from about the 15th to the 17th century. During this time, seafarers from European countries explored, settled, and took control of lands around the world. Parts of the world that had been cut off from each other became connected and formed the world-system. This laid the groundwork for globalization. The exploration created European colonial empires. Many European countries also began using colonialism as a government policy.

The opening of sea routes to the East Indies and the European colonization of the Americas by the Portuguese and Spaniards helped start international global trade. The English, French, and Dutch later joined them. Today's connected global economy has its roots in the growth of trade networks during this time. This colonization changed power in Europe and created new centers of power outside Europe. For this reason, the period is sometimes used to describe the first wave of European colonization.

Portuguese ocean exploration began with maritime expeditions to the Macaronesian islands. These included the Canary Islands, as well as Madeira and the Azores. In 1434, it continued along the coast of West Africa. The journey reached a high point in 1498, when Vasco da Gama found a establishment of a sea route to India. This helped Portugal start trading and doing business in Kerala and the Indian Ocean.

Spain sent voyages of Christopher Columbus across the Atlantic between 1492 and 1504. These voyages marked the start of colonization in the Americas. The Magellan expedition (1519–1522) opened a route from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Under Juan Sebastián Elcano, it completed the first circumnavigation of the globe. Spain also took control of conquest of Mexico (1519–1521) and the conquest of Peru (1532–1533). The Manila galleon trade route (1565–1815) linked the Americas and Asia across the Pacific. These journeys changed how Europeans understood the world. They led to many later sea and land trips that continued into the 19th century. In the 20th century, people went on polar exploration.

European exploration started the Columbian exchange. This was the exchange between the Old World (Europe, Asia, and Africa) and the New World (the Americas). Plants, animals, people, communicable diseases, and culture moved across the Eastern and Western Hemispheres. The Age of Discovery and European exploration included mapping the world. This helped form a new view of the world and made contact with faraway peoples possible. Continents drawn by European mapmakers changed from rough shapes into outlines more like the ones we know today. New diseases spread, especially affecting American Indians, and this led to rapid declines in some populations. During this era, many Indigenous peoples were treated very badly and lost their lands. At the same time, the growing influence and spread of Western culture, science, and technology led to faster-than-exponential population growth around the world.

Concept

Main article: Discovery (observation)

Historians have looked closely at the word "discovery" in the name periodization. The term "age of discovery" is still common in history books. J. H. Parry, who calls the period the Age of Reconnaissance, says it was a time when Europeans explored new lands and grew their knowledge of the world. He also says it led to the first big steps toward empirical science, which means learning by testing and observing. Anthony Pagden, building on the work of Edmundo O'Gorman, notes that for Europeans, the events of October 1492 were a "discovery," even though people already lived in these lands. O'Gorman says the bigger change was how Europeans fit this new knowledge into their view of the world, which he called "the invention of America." Few Europeans of the time used the word "invention," except Martin Waldseemüller, whose map was the first to use the name "America."

A legal idea called the discovery doctrine was explained by the United States Supreme Court in 1823. It was based on European powers' claims to land they explored. Many Indigenous peoples and researchers have challenged this idea, because it ignored the people who already lived there. Some people also call this period the Age of Contact or Contact Period, using the idea of first contact. They see it as an unfinished and varied story.

Overview

The Portuguese began exploring the Atlantic coast of Africa in 1418, with support from Prince Henry the Navigator. In 1488, Bartolomeu Dias reached the Indian Ocean by sailing this route.

In 1492, the Catholic Monarchs of Spain paid for Christopher Columbus to sail west across the Atlantic Ocean to reach the Indies. He found a continent that Europeans had not mapped, although the Norse had visited it about 500 years earlier. The land was later named America after Amerigo Vespucci, a trader who worked for Portugal. Portugal quickly claimed these lands under the Treaty of Alcáçovas. Castile asked the Pope, who was Castilian, to issue four papal bulls that divided the world into two areas for exploration. These were changed by the Treaty of Tordesillas, which was approved by Pope Julius II.

In 1498, a Portuguese expedition led by Vasco da Gama reached India by sailing around Africa. This opened a direct trade route with Asia. Portuguese India Armadas also travelled this eastern sea route, reaching South America and creating a path from the New World to Asia. This began in 1500 with Pedro Álvares Cabral. The Portuguese sailed on to the valuable Spice Islands in 1512 and reached China a year later. They reached Japan in 1543.

In 1513, Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama and reached the "other sea" from the New World. In 1522, a Spanish expedition led by Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan sailed west and completed the first journey around the world. After his death in what is now the Philippines, the trip was finished by navigator Juan Sebastián Elcano.

Spanish conquistadors explored the interior of the Americas and some islands in the South Pacific, mainly to disrupt Portuguese trade in the East. From 1495, the French, English, and Dutch joined the race to explore and search for new routes. John Cabot led the first of these expeditions in 1497 for England. Later voyages reached the Pacific, Australia, New Zealand, and Hawaii. From the 1580s to the 1640s, Russians explored and took over almost all of Siberia, and they claimed Alaska in the 1730s.

Background

See also: Early world maps and Chronology of European exploration of Asia

Further information: Ming treasure voyages and Chinese exploration

After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, Europe lost contact with lands farther east. Later, the Crusades to retake the Holy Land brought Europeans into contact with valuable goods from the Middle East. From the 12th century, trade on rivers and seas grew and changed the European economy. Merchants from Venice and Genoa became rich, and the Hanseatic League helped trade grow around the North Sea. Ships also got better. The magnetic compass was first invented in China during the Han dynasty. It reached Europe, where ships such as the full-rigged ship and the caravel were built by mixing northern European and Mediterranean styles. By 1400, a Latin translation of Ptolemy's Geographia had reached Italy from Byzantine Empire lands. This changed how Europeans made maps.

Europeans also learned about the wider world through travellers. The Mongols helped make long journeys possible through the Pax Mongolica. Marco Polo and Ibn Battuta wrote about their travels in Asia and Africa. The routes became harder to use after the Black Death. Religion also played a part in European expansion, as the spread of Christianity encouraged missions. Portugal, Spain, and France often combined missions with military conquest. Meanwhile, the Chinese admiral Zheng He led large voyages for the Ming emperor Yongle between 1405 and 1421. His ships visited Arabia, East Africa, and India. These voyages were not continued, because the Ming dynasty turned toward isolationism.

Atlantic Ocean (1419–1507)

See also: Maritime history of Europe § The European Age of Discovery (1400–1600)

For many centuries, the Republic of Venice and nearby maritime republics controlled trade between Europe and the Middle East. This included the silk and spice trade. Spices were some of the most valuable goods of the Middle Ages. They came from Asia and Africa. When these trade routes were blocked, Europe had less bullion. Sailors had mostly stayed close to land and used portolan charts. Portuguese sailors then began to explore farther out. Prince Henry the Navigator sent voyages down the coast of Africa, and the Canary Islands and Madeira were reached. Explorers used the caravel, a ship that was good for exploring coastlines. In 1434, Gil Eanes sailed past Cape Bojador. Later, Bartolomeu Dias sailed around the southern tip of Africa in 1488. This showed that the Indian Ocean could be reached from the Atlantic.

In 1492, the joint rulers of Spain agreed to pay for Christopher Columbus's voyage. He hoped to reach "the Indies" by sailing west. Columbus left Palos de la Frontera on 3 August 1492 and saw land on 12 October. Spain and Portugal both wanted new lands, so the Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494 divided the world between them. In 1500, Pedro Álvares Cabral claimed the Brazilian coast for Portugal. Explorers from many other countries followed, and Europeans began to learn about the Americas.

Main article: Treaty of Tordesillas

Indian Ocean (1497–1513)

See also: Portuguese India Armadas

Because the Treaty of Tordesillas gave Portugal the eastern lands, Spain did not compete with it there. Portugal kept exploring and building trading posts in the east. In 1485 and again in 1488, Portugal turned down a plan from Genoese Christopher Columbus to reach India by sailing west. The experts working for King John II of Portugal thought his estimate of the distance was too small. In 1487, Bartolomeu Dias set out to sail around the southern tip of Africa. He returned from the Cape of Good Hope in 1488. Around the same time, Pero da Covilhã travelled over land to Ethiopia. Together, these trips showed that the rich lands of the Indian Ocean could be reached from the Atlantic.

In July 1497, four ships and about 170 men left Lisbon under Vasco da Gama. They sailed past the Great Fish River, where Dias had turned back, and entered the Indian Ocean. There, da Gama found three busy trade routes. One of them connected Mogadishu, Aden, the Persian port of Hormuz, Cambay, and Calicut. The fleet reached Calicut on 20 May 1498. Da Gama had a hard time getting good trade deals, because the goods he brought were not worth much. Two years and two days after leaving, da Gama and 55 survivors returned to Portugal. They were the first ships to sail straight from Europe to India. Fellow traveler Luís de Camões later wrote about this voyage in Os Lusíadas, an epic poem (see Os Lusíadas). Many people think it is Portugal's greatest literary work. In 1500, a second and larger fleet under Pedro Álvares Cabral reached the coast of Brazil, which gave Portugal a claim there. One of Cabral's ships reached Madagascar in 1501. Tristão da Cunha partly explored the island in 1507. Mauritius was found in 1507, and Socotra was settled in 1506. During the same period, Lourenço de Almeida landed in Sri Lanka. Old accounts called this island "Taprobane," and it was mentioned by Alexander the Great and the Greek geographer Megasthenes from the 4th century BC. On the Asian mainland, the first factories (trading-posts) were set up at Kochi and Calicut in 1501, and then at Goa in 1510.

The Portuguese moved east from India into a second trade network. They reached Southeast Asia from Calicut and Quillon, including Malacca and Palembang. In 1511, Afonso de Albuquerque took Malacca, which was then the center of Asian trade. East of Malacca, he sent diplomatic missions. Duarte Fernandes became the first European envoy to the Kingdom of Siam, which is now Thailand. The Portuguese main goal was the "spice islands," a place that had been kept secret from Europeans. These were mainly the Banda islands, which were then the only source in the world of nutmeg and cloves. An expedition led by António de Abreu reached Banda in early 1512, and its members were the first Europeans to arrive there. Its route went through Java and the Lesser Sunda Islands, and it also passed Buru, Ambon, and Seram. A shipwreck separated Francisco Serrão from the group. He sailed north, returned to Ambon, and later sank near Ternate. There he received permission to build a Portuguese fortress-factory. This started the Portuguese presence in the Malay Archipelago. In May 1513, Jorge Álvares, one of the Portuguese envoys, reached China. He was the first to land on Lintin Island in the Pearl River Delta. In 1516, Rafael Perestrello, a cousin of Christopher Columbus, became the first European explorer to land on the southern coast of mainland China and trade in Guangzhou. He sailed a Portuguese ship. Fernão Pires de Andrade visited Canton in 1517 and opened up trade with China. The Portuguese lost to the Chinese in 1521 at the Battle of Tunmen, and again in 1522 at the Battle of Xicaowan. The Chinese took Portuguese breech-loading swivel guns and copied them. They called these weapons "Folangji" (Frankish) guns after the Portuguese. After a few decades, the fighting stopped. In 1557, the Chinese allowed the Portuguese to live in Macau. To control trade, Albuquerque took Muscat in 1507 and Hormuz in the Persian Gulf in 1515. He also set up diplomatic relations with Persia. In 1513, an expedition under Albuquerque sailed into the Red Sea through the Bab al-Mandab. It stopped at Kamaran island while trying to take Aden. In 1521, a force under António Correia took Bahrain, and Portugal then ruled the Gulf islands for almost 80 years. In the Red Sea, Massawa was the farthest north the Portuguese went until 1541. In that year, a fleet under Estevão da Gama reached as far as Suez.

See also: Far East

In 1513, Spanish Vasco Núñez de Balboa heard news of an "other sea" full of gold near Acandí, in what is now Colombia. He had few supplies, but he crossed the Isthmus of Panama with a group of Spaniards, some local guides, and a few dogs. On 25 September, he became the first European to see the Pacific Ocean from the New World. He named the bay San Miguel and the sea Mar del Sur (South Sea). From 1515 to 1516, Juan Díaz de Solís sailed down the east coast of South America as far as Río de la Plata. He named it shortly before he died while searching for a passage to the "South Sea."

Main article: Magellan–Elcano circumnavigation

By 1516, several Portuguese navigators, including Ferdinand Magellan, had gathered in Seville to serve Charles I of Spain. Magellan shared his plan with the king, who paid for the expedition. On 10 August 1519, five ships left Seville with about 237 men. They planned to reach the Spice Islands by sailing west. The fleet became the first to reach Tierra del Fuego. It then passed through the Strait of Magellan into the Pacific Ocean. Magellan was killed in the Battle of Mactan in the Philippines. Juan Sebastián Elcano finished the voyage. On 6 September 1522, the Victoria returned to Spain, completing the first circumnavigation of the globe. Only 18 of the original crew made the whole journey. Antonio Pigafetta, a Venetian scholar, wrote a detailed journal of the voyage.

Later Spanish expeditions used this knowledge to find routes that opened up trade between Acapulco, New Spain, and Manila in the Philippines. In 1525, Charles I sent another expedition led by García Jofre de Loaísa, which included Andrés de Urdaneta. Portugal and Spain argued over the Spice Islands for years. In 1529, the Treaty of Zaragoza settled the matter. It gave the Spice Islands to Portugal and the Philippines to Spain.

Inland Spanish expeditions (1519–1532)

Rumors of undiscovered islands northwest of Hispaniola reached Spain by 1511. King Ferdinand wanted Spain to find them first. While the Portuguese were gaining riches in the Indian Ocean, the Spanish paid for trips inland to search for gold and other valuable things. The conquistadors who led these trips were more like soldiers of fortune than soldiers in an army. They came from many different backgrounds, usually paid for their own equipment, and shared in the profits. In the Americas, the Spanish met large native empires and made alliances with indigenous people. After they claimed sovereignty over the land and found wealth, the Spanish crown set up government and church institutions. The early economy relied on tribute and required work under the encomienda system. Silver found in Mexico and Peru helped make Spain's economy stronger. During this time, pandemics of European diseases, such as smallpox, caused many deaths among the indigenous peoples.

In 1512, King Ferdinand encouraged Juan Ponce de León to seek new lands as a reward for his earlier exploration of Puerto Rico. In March 1513, he set out with three ships and about 200 men. In April, they sighted land and named it La Florida, because it was Easter season, and they thought it was an island. Historians disagree about exactly where they landed. The possibilities are St. Augustine, Ponce de León Inlet, and Melbourne Beach. On the trip, they met the Gulf Stream, a strong current that pushed their ships backward. This was the first time anyone recorded it. The current would soon become the main route for ships sailing from the Spanish Indies to Europe. They explored the coast, reaching Biscayne Bay, Dry Tortugas, and Grand Bahama.

Cortés' Mexico and the Aztec Empire

Main article: Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire

See also: Spanish conquest of Yucatán and Spanish conquest of Guatemala

In 1517, Cuba's governor Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar sent a fleet led by Hernández de Córdoba to explore the Yucatán Peninsula. The Mayans there invited them to come ashore, but they were attacked at night, and only a few crew members made it back. Velázquez then sent another expedition, led by his nephew Juan de Grijalva. It sailed south to Tabasco, part of the Aztec Empire. In 1518, Velázquez gave Hernán Cortés command of an expedition into the interior of Mexico. Later he cancelled the order because of an old disagreement between them. In February 1519, Cortés went ahead anyway. He landed in Yucatán with about 11 ships, 500 men, 13 horses, and some cannons, and he claimed the land for the Spanish crown. After winning a battle at Tabasco, he gained a helpful interpreter and advisor, Marina (La Malinche). She knew both Nahuatl language and Maya. Through her, Cortés learned about the wealthy Aztec Empire.

In July 1519, his men took over Veracruz. Cortés said he was under the direct orders of the new king, Charles I of Spain. He asked to meet Aztec emperor Moctezuma II, who refused several times. On the way to Tenochtitlan, Cortés made alliances with several tribes. In October, he marched with about 3,000 Tlaxcaltec to Cholula, the second largest city in central Mexico. Many people there were harmed, and part of the city was burned. On 8 November, Moctezuma II welcomed Cortés into Tenochtitlan. Cortés later took the emperor as a hostage. In 1520, Velázquez sent Pánfilo de Narváez to oppose Cortés. After Cortés defeated him, one of Cortés's officers treated people very badly at the Great Temple. This caused a local uprising. Moctezuma died during the unrest. The Spaniards fled toward Tlaxcala during the Noche Triste, and they lost much of their treasure. After a battle in Otumba, they reached Tlaxcala, but they had lost many men. With help from allies and reinforcements from Cuba, Cortés besieged Tenochtitlán. In August 1521, he captured its ruler, Cuauhtémoc. He then claimed the city for Spain and renamed it Mexico City.

Pizarro's Peru and the Inca Empire

Main article: Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire

In 1522, Pascual de Andagoya made an early attempt to explore western South America. Native South Americans told him about a land rich in gold, on a river called Pirú. After reaching the San Juan River (Colombia), he became sick and returned to Panama. He spread word of "Pirú" as a legendary land, like El Dorado. This news, along with Cortés's success, caught the attention of Francisco Pizarro. Pizarro had crossed the Isthmus of Panama with Balboa. In 1524, Pizarro teamed up with priest Hernando de Luque and soldier Diego de Almagro to explore the south. The first trip failed because of bad weather, hunger, and conflicts with local people. A second trip in 1526 found a raft carrying gold, silver, and emeralds from Tumbes. This became their main focus. Pizarro stayed near the coast and sent Almagro and Luque to find more help. When the governor ordered everyone back to Panama, Pizarro drew a line in the sand. He offered the men a choice between Peru's riches and Panama's poverty. Thirteen men chose to stay with him. By 1528, they reached the Tumbes region, where they were welcomed warmly. Pizarro then sailed to Spain, where King Charles I supported his plans. The king's agreement, the Capitulación de Toledo, allowed Pizarro to conquer Peru. Pizarro's relatives and friends, including Francisco de Orellana, joined him. Orellana later explored the Amazon River.

Pizarro's third and final expedition left Panama in December 1530. It founded San Miguel de Piura, the first Spanish settlement in Peru. At that time, the Inca were in a civil war. Atahualpa had defeated his brother Huáscar, and Atahualpa refused to submit to the Spanish. Although the Spanish had far fewer soldiers, Pizarro won the Battle of Cajamarca. He took Atahualpa captive in the Ransom Room. Atahualpa offered gold and silver for his release, but he was later put to death. In 1533, Pizarro entered Cuzco. Jauja, in the fertile Mantaro Valley, was first made Peru's temporary capital, but it was too high in the mountains. On 18 January 1535, Pizarro founded the city of Lima, which he considered one of the most important achievements of his life.

Major new trade routes (1542–1565)

In 1543, three Portuguese traders accidentally became the first Westerners to reach and trade with Japan. According to Fernão Mendes Pinto, who said he was on this journey, they arrived at Tanegashima. The local people were impressed by firearms, and the Japanese soon began making them in large numbers. Philip II of Spain ordered the Spanish conquest of the Philippines. Andrés de Urdaneta was planned as the leader, but he agreed to join without leading the trip. Miguel López de Legazpi was chosen instead. The expedition set sail in November 1564. After some time in the islands, Legazpi sent Urdaneta back to find a better way home. On 1 June 1565, Urdaneta left San Miguel on the island of Cebu. He had to sail as far north as 38 degrees North latitude to find winds that would help him.

Urdaneta thought the trade winds of the Pacific might move in a gyre, like the winds of the Atlantic. Sailors in the Atlantic used the Volta do mar to catch winds that carried them back from Madeira. Urdaneta believed that sailing far north before heading east would catch winds that could bring him back toward North America. His idea worked. He reached the coast near Cape Mendocino, California, and then followed the coast south to the port of Acapulco, arriving on 8 October 1565. The voyage covered about 12,000 miles (19,000 kilometres) in 130 days. A Spanish route across the Pacific, between Mexico and the Philippines, was now set up. For a long time, the Manila galleons used these routes. This created a trade link that joined China, the Americas, and Europe through the combined trans-Pacific and trans-Atlantic routes.

Northern European involvement (16th–17th centuries)

See also: Tonnage and poundage

Countries outside Iberia did not accept the Treaty of Tordesillas, which divided the new lands between Portugal and Castile. They also did not accept the Pope's gift of Spanish discoveries in the New World. France, the Netherlands, and England each had a long maritime tradition and had used privateering. Even with Iberian protections, new ships, tools, and maps soon reached the north.

Henry VIII of England wanted to end his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, but he had no son and the pope would not allow it. So Henry broke with the Roman Catholic Church and became head of the Church of England. This added religious conflict to political conflict. Much of the Netherlands had become Protestant and wanted independence from Catholic Spain. In 1568 the Dutch rebelled against Philip II of Spain, which began the Eighty Years' War. England and Spain also went to war.

In 1580 Philip II also became King of Portugal. He kept Portugal and its empire separate from the Spanish Empire, but the two crowns together formed a powerful Catholic kingdom. England and the Netherlands challenged it. Philip's troops took the trading cities of Bruges and Ghent. Antwerp, then the most important port in the world, fell in 1585. Many Protestants left and settled in Amsterdam. They included skilled workers, wealthy merchants, and people fleeing danger, such as Sephardic Jews and later the Huguenots from France. The Pilgrim Fathers also stayed there before sailing to the New World. Amsterdam quickly grew into one of the most important trading centres in the world.

After the failure of the Spanish Armada in 1588, sea trade grew a great deal. The defeat of the English Armada showed that Spain still had the strongest navy. Dutch sailors, who were skilled at navigation and mapmaking, joined Portuguese voyages. In 1592 Cornelis de Houtman gathered information about the Spice Islands in Lisbon. Jan Huyghen van Linschoten published a detailed travel report in Amsterdam that explained how to reach the East Indies and Japan. Houtman then led the first Dutch exploration voyage. He found a new route to the Sunda Strait and made a treaty with the Banten Sultan. Interest from the Dutch and British led to the founding of English (1600) and Dutch (1602) chartered companies. Their ships broke the Portuguese control of this trade.

In 1497 Henry VII of England sent an expedition led by John Cabot. It was the first of many French and English trips to explore North America. Spain focused on Central and South America, where it found more riches, so Spanish exploration of the north was more limited. Other Europeans hoped to find a shortcut west to Asia. Later they hoped to find a Northwest Passage, which was not found until the early twentieth century.

Between 1520 and 1521 the Portuguese João Álvares Fagundes explored Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. He set up a fishing colony on Cape Breton Island. In 1524 Giovanni da Verrazzano, sailing for Francis I of France, explored the coast from South Carolina to Newfoundland. He was the first recorded European to visit what would later become the Virginia Colony and the United States. That same year, Estêvão Gomes, a Portuguese cartographer, explored the coast as far as Florida. He sailed into New York Harbor and up the Hudson River.

From 1534 to 1536, Jacques Cartier became the first European to travel inland in North America. He claimed what is now Canada for Francis I. Along the Pacific coast, Spaniard Francisco de Ulloa showed that Baja California was a peninsula. In 1542 João Rodrigues Cabrilho became the first European to set foot in California. In 1579 Francis Drake sailed along the coast and claimed the area as New Albion for Elizabeth I.

From 1609 to 1611, Henry Hudson explored the Hudson River while working for the Dutch East India Company. He helped start Dutch colonization of the region. Later he explored the Hudson Strait and Hudson Bay. His crew turned against him and cast him adrift.

France, the Netherlands, and England also searched for a northern sea route to Asia. The Muscovy Company opened trade with Russia after Richard Chancellor reached the White Sea. Martin Frobisher searched for a northwest passage and claimed Baffin Island for Elizabeth I. In 1594 Dutch cartographer Willem Barentsz searched for the Northeast Passage north of Siberia. Later he spent a winter on the ice near Novaya Zemlya. He died at sea in 1597.

For a long time, Europeans believed in a large southern land called Terra Australis Ignota. New discoveries gradually shrank the area where it might be. Willem Janszoon made the first recorded European landing on the Australian continent in 1606, near Cape York. Between 1642 and 1644, Abel Tasman sailed around New Holland. He showed that Australia was not part of the imagined southern continent. He was also the first known European expedition to reach Tasmania, New Zealand, and the Fiji islands.

Russian exploration of Siberia (1581–1660)

Main articles: Russian conquest of Siberia, Conquest of the Khanate of Sibir, Siberian River Routes, and List of Russian explorers

In the mid-1500s, the Tsardom of Russia conquered the Tatar khanates of Kazan and Astrakhan. This gave Russia the whole Volga region and opened the way to the Ural Mountains. The rich merchant family Stroganovs helped settle these new eastern lands. Ivan the Terrible gave Anikey Stroganov large estates and tax breaks. The Stroganovs farmed, hunted, mined salt and ore, fished, and traded with Siberian tribes. Around 1577, Semyon Stroganov hired a Cossack leader, Yermak, to protect their lands from Khan Kuchum. In 1581, Yermak began his journey into Siberia. In 1582, he won the Battle of Chuvash Cape on the Irtysh River. He then captured the Khanate of Sibir, including its capital Qashliq near modern Tobolsk. Kuchum's army retreated to the steppes. In 1585, Kuchum attacked at night, and Yermak drowned while trying to escape. The Cossacks left Siberia. A few years later, Russians took back all of Yermak's conquests. This was thanks to his earlier exploring of the main river routes of West Siberia.

In the early 1600s, the Time of Troubles slowed Russia's move east, but exploration soon started again. Cossacks led the way, hunting for valuable furs and ivory. Pomors from the Russian North also came by the Arctic Ocean. They had traded with Mangazeya for a long time. In 1607, Turukhansk was founded on the northern Yenisey River, near the mouth of the Lower Tunguska. In 1619, the Yeniseysk ostrog was founded at the mouth of the Upper Tunguska. Between 1620 and 1624, fur hunters led by Demid Pyanda explored the Lower Tunguska. They spent a winter near the Vilyuy and Lena Rivers. Later folktales say Pyanda explored much of the Lena, reaching central Yakutia. He may have been the first Russian to meet the Buryats and Yakuts. He then followed the Angara River to Yeniseysk. There he found that the Angara and Upper Tunguska are the same river. In 1627, Pyotr Beketov became the Yenisei voevoda. He reached the Zabaykalye Buryats and became the first Russian to step into Buryatia. In 1632, he founded Yakutsk and sent Cossacks to explore the Aldan River. Yakutsk became a major starting point for Russian trips in every direction. Maksim Perfilyev founded Bratsk ostrog in 1631. In 1638, he became the first Russian to enter Transbaikalia. In 1643, Kurbat Ivanov crossed to the south of the Baikal Mountains. He discovered Lake Baikal, visited Olkhon Island, and later made the first map of it.

In 1639, Ivan Moskvitin became the first Russian to reach the Pacific Ocean. He discovered the Sea of Okhotsk and built a winter camp at the mouth of the Ulya River. Locals told his men about the large Amur River to the south. In 1640, they explored the Okhotsk coast and possibly the Shantar Islands. In 1643, Vassili Poyarkov crossed the Stanovoy Range and reached the Zeya River. There, the Daurs paid tribute to the Manchus. In 1644, he became the first Russian to reach the Amur and sailed down to its mouth. Because the local people behind them were not friendly, the group returned by a different route in 1645–1646. In 1644, Mikhail Stadukhin discovered the Kolyma River and founded Srednekolymsk. In 1648, a team including the merchant Fedot Alekseyevich Popov and Semyon Dezhnyov rounded Cape Dezhnyov. Dezhnyov captained one of the kochi. They became the first explorers to pass through the Bering Strait. They also discovered Chukotka and the Bering Sea. Most of their men were lost in storms and in clashes with local people. Dezhnyov's small group sailed up the Anadyr River in 1649 and founded Anadyrsk. Stadukhin later found them and discovered Penzhin Bay on the Okhotsk Sea. He may also have explored the western shores of Kamchatka.

From 1649 to 1653, Yerofey Khabarov explored the Amur River twice. On the second trip, he was met with armed resistance, but he still built winter quarters at Albazin. He also founded Achansk, which came before the present-day Khabarovsk. He mapped the Amur in his Draft of the Amur river. The Russians held the Amur region until 1689. That year, the Treaty of Nerchinsk gave it to the Qing Empire. It was returned by the Treaty of Aigun in 1858. From 1659 to 1665, Kurbat Ivanov led the Anadyrsky ostrog after Semyon Dezhnev. In 1660, he sailed from Anadyr Bay to Cape Dezhnyov. His maps of Chukotka and the Bering Strait were the first to show Wrangel Island, the Diomede Islands, and Alaska, though only very roughly. By the mid-1600s, Russia had set borders close to today's and had explored nearly all of Siberia. The exceptions were eastern Kamchatka and some northern regions. Vladimir Atlasov later conquered Kamchatka in the early 1700s. The Great Northern Expedition finished exploring the Arctic coast and Alaska in 1733–1743.

Global impact

Main articles: Columbian exchange, History of colonialism, and Globalization

Further information: Major explorations after the Age of Discovery

European sea travel connected the Old World and the New World. This contact led to the global silver trade between the Americas, Europe, and China and to European involvement in the Chinese porcelain trade. Goods moved from one side of the world to the other. Europeans brought cattle, horses, and sheep to the New World. In return, they received tobacco, potatoes, tomatoes, and maize. Crops like tobacco, sugarcane, and cotton, along with gold and silver from the Americas, became important in world trade.

These new links helped start the Age of Imperialism, when colonial powers from Europe took control of most of the planet's land. European demand for trade goods, colonies, and enslaved people affected the rest of the world. During European colonization of the Americas, European powers took control of many American Indian nations and cultures and tried to change their ways of life, sometimes by force. Together with diseases brought from Europe, this led to a drastic decrease in the American Indian population. The historian Peter Mancall wrote: "The arrival of Europeans brought death, displacement, sorrow, and despair to Native Americans." In places such as North America, Central America, Australia, New Zealand, and Argentina, Indigenous peoples were treated poorly, pushed off their lands, and became small dependent groups.

In East and West Africa, local states supplied European slave traders. This changed the coastal African states and affected slavery in Africa, with effects felt far inland. Maize and manioc were brought to Africa by the Portuguese in the 16th century, and they are now important staple foods. Alfred W. Crosby suggested that growing these New World crops led to larger populations in the areas where enslavers captured people.

In North America, conflicts between European colonists and American Indians were common. Diseases from Eurasia caused many deaths among American Indians, because they had never been exposed to these diseases and had no immunity. Europeans also had more advanced technology and weapons, which added to these losses.

In the global silver trade, China was helped by trade with the Portuguese, Spaniards, and Dutch. Much of the silver ended up in China, which received more silver than any other place. When the flow of silver into China fell during the last decades of the Ming dynasty, state income and the economy were weakened. Problems with farming, the Little Ice Age, crop failures, and sudden epidemics made things worse. The breakdown of authority allowed rebel leaders such as Li Zicheng to challenge Ming rule.

New crops from the Americas, brought to Asia by Spanish colonizers in the 16th century, helped Asia's population grow. Chinese buyers purchased sweet potatoes, maize, and peanuts from the Spanish Empire. These crops could grow where traditional Chinese staple crops could not. The arrival of the Portuguese in Japan in 1543 started the Nanban trade period, when the Japanese adopted new technologies and customs, including the arquebus, European ships, Christianity, and language.

Economic impact in Europe

Main articles: Commercial Revolution, Renaissance, Renaissance in the Low Countries, and Great Divergence

As more global luxury goods reached Europe by sea, older markets for luxury goods lost ground. The Atlantic trade largely replaced the trading power of Italian and German merchants. The new goods also brought social change, as sugar, spices, silks, and chinaware entered European luxury markets. The center of the European economy moved from the Mediterranean to Western Europe. The city of Antwerp, part of the Duchy of Brabant, became the richest city in Europe. Later, Amsterdam took over this role, and the Dutch Golden Age was closely linked to the Age of Discovery.

By 1549, the Portuguese empire was sending yearly trade missions to Shangchuan Island in China. In 1557, they won an agreement that made Macau an official Portuguese trade colony. The Portuguese friar Gaspar da Cruz wrote the first complete book on China to be published in Europe.

Chinese silk and porcelain were major exports, often made to suit European tastes. Chinese porcelain was so admired in Europe that, in English, the word china became a common name for porcelain. Kraak porcelain was among the first Chinese ware to reach Europe in large numbers, and at first only the wealthy could afford it. The Dutch East India Company later brought large numbers of porcelain items from China. Kraak, mainly blue and white porcelain, was copied by potters in Arita, Japan, and in Persia, where Dutch merchants turned after the fall of the Ming dynasty made Chinese originals hard to get. These designs later influenced English delftware.

Antonio de Morga, a Spanish official in Manila, listed many goods traded by Ming China around 1600. Silver from Peruvian and Mexican mines came to China in return, transported via Manila. Chinese merchants took part in these trading ventures, and many moved to places such as the Philippines and Borneo for new business opportunities.

Spain's gold and silver from the New World led to a major rise in prices across Spain and Europe, known as the price revolution. In the 1540s, large-scale silver mining in New Spain began. Spain's rulers spent much of this wealth on wars and the arts, and the silver spread through Europe, causing prices to rise widely. Spain relied more and more on this income and went bankrupt in 1557. The rising prices helped the growth of the commercial middle class, the bourgeoisie, which gained influence over the politics and culture of many countries.