During the Age of Discovery, European nations competed to build wealthy empires through world exploration and colonization. Portugal used its location along the Atlantic Ocean and advanced sailing techniques to explore the coast of Africa, where sailor Bartolomeu Dias used ocean currents to round the Cape of Good Hope, and Vasco da Gama later reached India to dominate the valuable Asian spice trade. Meanwhile, Spain funded Christopher Columbus’s 1492 voyage to find a western route to Asia. Instead, he reached the Americas and met the native Taíno people, initiating a global exchange of trade, conflict, and disease that transformed human history. To prevent a war over these new territories, the Pope helped create the Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494 to split claims between Spain and Portugal, though other European powers like Britain, France, and the Netherlands soon joined the race to colonize North America and Asia.
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