Portugal and Spain

Henry the Navigator

1415

Henry the Navigator also known as Prince Henry was born in 1394, the third surviving son of the king of Portugal (Ignitia.com Editors). After Prince Henry died, he left a legacy behind and Portuguese exploration accelerated (Nowell et al). He was a brilliant military leader (Ignitia.com Editors). Except he would rather do exploration in the world (Ignitia.com Editors). Henry never went to sea himself, he trained the ones who were willing to go (Ignitia.com Editors).

Bartholomew Dias

1487

Bartholomew Dias became the first European mariner to sail around the southern tip of Africa, finding a new route (Bartholomew Dias). Bartholomew Dias named the place as Cape of Storms, later the Portugal king renamed it Cape of Good Hope (Ignitia.com Editors). Even though the Spanish went west, the Portuguese continued to search for a route to the East Indies (Ignitia.com Editors).

Vasco de Gama

1498

In May of 1498, Vasco de Gama arrived in Calicut, India (Ignitia.com Editors). Vasco de Gama passed through Cape of Good Hope (Campbell et al). His reception was very hostile that he and his men had to go to a nearby town to purchase spices and jewels for the trip back (Ignitia.com Editors). September of 1499, Da Gama arrived in Lisbon with only one-half of his ships and one-third of his crew (Ignitia.com Editors).

Brazil

1500

In 1500 the tip of Brazil was discovered by Cabral, a Portuguese captain (Ignitia.com Editors). Brazil had no great wealth, and its exports which were agricultural in nature, made the colony almost worthless to Portugal (Ignitia.com Editors). Economically, Brazil was considered a useless country (Ignitia.com Editors). Then they discovered gold and diamonds (Ignitia.com Editors).

Charles V

1516

In 1516 Charles V became the king of Spain (Ignitia.com Editors). Three years later he gained the control of the Holy Roman Empire and the other countries such as Belgium and Netherlands (Ignitia.com Editors). He was a rich and powerful man (Ignitia.com Editors). Charles, however, did struggle to hold his empire together against the growing forcesof Protestism, the increasing Ottoman and French pressure (Ferdinandy, Michael).

Adventures on Sea

1519

Another explorer interested in circumnavigating the world was Ferdinand Magellan (Ignitia.com Editors). He has five ships and 243 men, they sailed out to South America (Ignitia.com Editors). One ship was lost, and a great storm cripped one of the ships, forcing them to go back (Ignitia.com Editors). When he return he only had three ships (Ignitia.com Editors).

Contacting China

1520

In 1520, the tiny country was the first European nation to contact China (Ignitia.com Editors). However, the results were disastrous, the Chinese rulers considered the Portuguese their inferiors (Ignitia.com Editors). The Chinese ruled that foreigners were no longer allowed in their land, but they did give them a base on Macao (Ignitia.com Editors).

End of Reign

1566

Charles V was exhuasted from all the pressures constantly weighing him down, then Charles took of his crown and crowned his son, Philip (Ignitia.com Editors). Philip travled places but because of his inability to speak fluently in any language except Castilian made him unpopular with the German and Flemish nobility (Koenigsberger). Charles gave Austria and the title of Holy Roman Emperor to his brother, Ferdinand, who already possessed the Bohemian-Hungarian crown (Ignitia.com Editors).

A Marriage

1588

Philip also called Philip II saw England as his major foe (Ignitia.com Editors). He married the English queen Mary I, hoping that through her he could undermine the strong and powerful country (Ignitia.com Editors). Unfortunately, mary died, leaving the crown to her half-sister, Elizabeth (Ignitia.com Editors). She was hostile to the Spanish monarch (Ignitia.com Editors).

A Death, the Death of Philip II

1598

Philip died in 1598, but this was the decline for Spain (Ignitia.com Editors). Spain would never have a strong Hapsburg ruler with the wealth or power as Charles or Philip (Ignitia.com Editors). During their reigns they explored the American land mass, unlike Portugal, Spain found great wealth in the new world (Ignitia.com Editors).