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Feb 7, 1418
Prince Henry starts a navigation school
Prince Henry was very excited and enthusiastic about the Age of Exploration. Because of this, he started a school of navigation so others could navigate and explore the world. -
Feb 7, 1488
Bartolomeu Dias rounds the southern tip of Africa.
Bartolomeu Dias was an explorer in what was known as the Age of Exploration. One of his achievements is being the first European to sail around the southern point of Africa. -
Oct 12, 1492
Christopher Columbus reachers the Caribbean
On August 3, 1492, Columbus set sail from Palos, Spain, with three small ships, the Santa Maria, the Pinta, and the Nina. On October 12, the expedition reached land, probably Watling Island in the Bahamas. -
Jun 7, 1494
Spain and Portugal sign the Treaty of Tordesillas
This treaty had an imaginary line drawn in the ocean. The lands to the east would belong to Portugal and the lands to the west to Spain. -
May 20, 1498
Vasco de Gama reaches the port of Calicut
Portuguese explorer Vasco de Gama becomes the first European to reach India via the Atlantic Ocean when he arrives at Calicut on the Malabar Coast. Da Gama sailed from Lisbon, Portugal, in July 1497, rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and anchored at Malindi on the east coast of Africa. With the aid of an Indian merchant he met there, he then set off across the Indian Ocean. The Portuguese explorer was not greeted warmly by the Muslim merchants of Calicut, and in 1499 he had to fight his way out of -
Feb 7, 1519
Ferdinand Magellan
Magellan's expedition of 1519–1522 became the first expedition to sail from the Atlantic Ocean into the Pacific Ocean. His expedition completed the first circumnavigation of the Earth. -
Spain begins settlement in the Philippines
The invasion of the Pilippines by Spain did not begin in earnest until 1564, when another expedition from New Spain, commanded by Miguel López de Legaspi, arrived. Permanent Spanish settlement was not established until 1565 when an expedition led by Miguel López de Legazpi, the first Governor-General of the Philippines, arrived in Cebu from New Spain. -
The Dutch establish a trading center on Java
This was the first trading post established in Java, India by the Dutch East India company. A second one was estabilished in 1611 -
France sets up its own East India Company
The French East India Company was a commercial enterprise, founded in 1664 to compete with the British and Dutch East India companies in the East Indies.
Planned by Jean-Baptiste Colbert, it was chartered by King Louis XIV for the purpose of trading in the Eastern Hemisphere.
