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Feb 1, 1418
Prince Henry starts a navigation school
Around 1418, Prince Henery started the first school for oceanic navagation in Sagres, Portugal. The school trained its students in navigation, map-making, and science in order to sail town west Africa. -
Feb 1, 1488
Bartolomeu Dias rounds the southern tip of Africa
Bartolomeu Dias becomes the first European mariner to round the southern tip of Africa, opening a sea route between the continents. He did this by rounding the southern tip of Africa called the Cape of Good Hope. -
Oct 12, 1492
Christopher Columbus reaches the Caribbean
Christopher Coloumbus landed first in the Bahammas and later explored most of the Carribean and the coasts of Central and South America. This led to his quick recognition to being the first European to reach the Americas, but today this is seen as being untrue. -
Jun 7, 1494
Spain and Portugal sign the Treaty of Tordesillas
The treaty of Tordesillas is signed in what is now the Valladolid province located in Spain. It divided the newly discovered lands between Spain and Portugal located outside of Europe. -
May 20, 1498
Vasco da Gama reaches the port of Calicut on the Indian Ocean.
The fleet arrived in Kappadu near Calicut, India on May 20 1498. The King of Calicut returned to Calicut on hearing the news of the foreign fleets's arrival. -
Feb 3, 1521
Ferdinand Magellan leads a Spanish expedition to the Philippines
Ferdinand Megellan arrives in the Philippines in 1521 when he landed on the island of Cebu and claimed the island for Spain. He befriended some of the citizens, but was still killed by a local chief named Lapu-Lapu, who was agaist foreign domination -
Feb 3, 1565
Spain begins settlements in the Philippines
Although Magellan arrived in 1521, true colonization did not start until 1564 when another expidition led by Miguel Lopez de Legaspi arrived. A settlement was set up in 1565 on the island of Cebu. -
The Dutch establish a trading center on Java.
In 1602, the Dutch government followed started "United East Indies Company" The new company built forts, maintained armies, and concluded treaties with Asian rulers. It provided for a venture that would continue for 21 years. In 1603, the first permanent Dutch trading post in Indonesia was established in Banten, West Java. -
France sets up its own East India Company
The French East india Company was set up to comete with the other British and Dutch companies already set up in colonial India. It's purpose was to create trade between India and France.