If you could trace the “Age of Discovery” to one man, it would be Henry. Prince Henry was the third child of the Portuguese king John |.
The “Age of Discovery” begins with Portugal.
They signed the Treaty of Tordesillas, which essentially carved the world in half between the two of them. In 1494 Pope Alexander VI mediated in a dispute between Spain and Portugal. In the late 15th century, Portugal and Spain (Well technically Castile) were the two great powers of Europe.Įngland and France fought the “Hundred Year War”, which only recently ended in 1453, leaving their power greatly reduced. One important thing to know here is that all of these people sailed under the crown of either Spain or Portuguese. The problem was that they came overland and Venice had a virtual monopoly.Īsians had no incentive to cross these vast oceans if the worlds most valuable commodity was already there, and the Chinese almost certainly could have if they wished. The Europeans went absolutely mad for these spices, including clove and nutmeg. There was only one place on Earth that you could get them, the Molucca Islands, in modern-day Indonesia, not to be confused with Malacca in neighbouring Malaysia. That’s because the most valuable commodity at this time was spices. The Chinese have been trading with Europeans since the roman times.īut it was the Europeans who really needed the Asians. So why did the European’s discover the “New World”? If I were a betting man, my money undoubtedly would have been on the Chinese to not only discover the “New World” but also to complete the first circumnavigation. With the largest ships being the treasure ships, at and estimated 419 feet, for comparison, the caravel, the standard Portuguese ship were on average only 75 feet long.
For instance, the 1405 expedition consisted of 27,800 men and a fleet of 62 treasure ships supported by approximately 190 smaller ships. The route he took was not new, the Chinese had been trading with Muslims and Africans for centuries, it was the size of the fleet which was unprecedented.Įach one of his expeditions contained more men and ships than the six explorers following combined. He was sent to awe the nations, and enforce the tributary system around Asia and Africa. Zhang He commanded seven expeditions between 14. They inform the King of Portugal that they come seeking trade agreements, and that their commander Zhang He (or Cheng Ho in English) has been tasked with finding Europe and to find a way around Africa Imagine waking up in 1422 Lisbon, and anchored in the harbour is a fleet of Chinese vessels.
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