Age of Exploration

European maritime expansion linking the continents through caravels, cartography, and conquest.

Core Principles & Analysis

• Portugal’s Atlantic push under Henry the Navigator opened the era.
• Columbus (1492), da Gama (1498), and the Magellan-Elcano circumnavigation (1519-22) redrew the world map.
• The resulting Columbian Exchange globalized crops, silver, people, and pathogens.

Specifications & Metrics

• ERA: 15th – 17th Century