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Mar 3, 1453
Prince Henry starts a navigation school
In Portugal though the precise location is unknown. He started the school in or near Sagres, Portugal. His school taught the skills of map making and sailing. -
Nov 20, 1488
Bartolomeu Dias rounds the southern tip of Africa
He was a Portuguese explorer who sailed around the southernmost tip of Africa in 1488, the first European known to have done so. -
Nov 3, 1493
Christopher Columbus reaches the Caribbean
On November 3, 1493, Christopher Columbus sighted a rugged island that he named Dominica. On the same day, he landed at Marie-Galante, which he named Santa Maria la Galante. -
Jul 7, 1494
Spain and Portugal sign the Treaty of Tordesillas
7 June 1494, divided the newly discovered lands outside Europe between Spain and Portugal along a meridian 370 leagues. The treaty was ratified by Spain , 2 July 1494 and by Portugal, 5 September 1494. The other side of the world would be divided a few decades later by the Treaty of Zaragoza or Saragossa, signed on 22 April 1529, which specified the antimeridian to the line of demarcation specified in the Treaty of Tordesillas -
Feb 1, 1495
Vasco da Gama reaches the port of Calicut on the Indian Ocean
Soon after he ascended the throne of Portugal in 1495, King Manuel I commissioned a fleet of four ships to attempt a voyage around Africa to the fabled land of India.
King Manuel knew that India was the source of many spices which were scarce and costly in Europe. -
Jan 31, 1521
Spain begins settlements in the Philippines
Parts of the Philippine Islands were known to Europeans before the 1521 Spanish expedition around the world led by Portuguese-born Spanish explorer Ferdinand Magellan, who were not the first Europeans in the Philippines -
Dec 27, 1521
Ferdinand Magellan leads a Spanish expedition to the Philippines
On March 16, 1521, Magellan's expedition landed on Homonhon island in the Philippines. He was the first European to reach the islands -
The Dutch established a trading center on Java
During the 16th century, the Spice trade was dominated by the Portuguese who used Lisbon as a staple port. This was the second multinational corporation in the world and the first company to issue stock -
France sets up its own East India Company
Dissolved and activities absorbed by the French Crown in 1769; reconstituted 1785, bankrupt 1794
