Maritime History of Europe - The European Age of Discovery 1400 - 1600

1600

The Age of Discovery started with the Portuguese navigators. Prince Henry the Navigator would start a maritime school in Portugal. The resulting technical and scientific discoveries led to Portugal developing the most advanced ships / caravels that for the first time in history would make truly global maritime navigation possible. It led to the Portuguese Kingdom discovering and mapping most of the Globe. The route to India via the Cape of Good Hope was discovered in two phases. Initially Bartolomeu Dias left Portugal and rounded the Cape of Good Hope. The Second phase would take Vasco da Gama around the southern tip of Africa and on to India and the East. It was the first time in history that humans had navigated from Europe around Africa to Asia. It also led to the discovery of Brazil and South America. It would also be a Portuguese nobleman, Ferdinand Magellan (although at the time lending his services to the Spanish crown) that would be the first man to sail around the world.

Christopher Columbus set sail in the Santa Maria on what is probably history’s greatest voyage of discovery on August 3, 1492. Leaving from the town of Palos, in southern Spain, Columbus headed west. After a brief stop in the Canary Islands for provisions and repairs, he set out for Asia. He reached San Salvador first, it is believed, (easternmost of the Bahamas) in October, and then sailed past Cuba and Hispaniola, still searching for Asia. He returned home in 1493 to a hero's welcome, and within six months had 1,500 men and 17 vessels at his command.

The year 1571 saw the last great battle between galleys, when more than 400 Turkish and Christian vessels engaged each other on the Gulf of Patras. The Battle of Lepanto as it was called, saw some 38,000 men perish. Miguel de Cervantes, author of Don Quixote, was wounded during the battle. In April 1587, Sir Francis Drake burned 37 Spanish ships in the harbor at Cádiz, in southern Spain.

The publication of Jan Huygen van Linschoten's book Voyages provided a significant turning point in Europe's maritime history. Before the publication of this book, knowledge of the sea route to the Far East had been well guarded by the Portuguese for over a century. Voyages was published in several languages, including English and German (published in 1598), Latin (1599), and French (1610). Widely read by Europeans, the original Dutch edition and the French translation had second editions published.

Once knowledge of the sea route became available to all Europeans, more ships headed to East Asia. A Dutch fleet embarked on a voyage to India using Linschoten’s charts in 1595. (The Dutch version of his book was published in 1596, but his sea charts had been published the previous year). The publication of the nautical maps enabled the Dutch and British East India companies to break the trade monopoly Portugal held with the East Indies. Protestant Europe was ushered into the age of discovery in large part thanks to his work.