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Home›World history

Age of exploration

From the spice markets of the Indian Ocean in the 1400s to the new world maps of the 1500s. Seven units cover the spice trade, the instruments and ships that made long voyages possible, the voyages of da Gama, Columbus and Magellan, the Columbian exchange, the Atlantic slave trade, colonies and the people who resisted them, and the way the map of the world changed. Figures for the slave trade come from the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database; other numbers are estimates and each unit says where historians disagree.

Progress

About this course

Before 1492 there were no potatoes in Ireland, no tomatoes in Italy, no chili peppers anywhere in Asia and no horses in the Americas. The Age of Exploration changed what people ate and where they lived, and this course follows it from the spice markets of the Indian Ocean in the 1400s to the new world maps of the 1500s. Figures for the slave trade come from the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database; other numbers are estimates and each unit says where historians disagree.

The seven units are the spice trade, compass, astrolabe and caravel, da Gama, Columbus and Magellan, the Columbian exchange, the Atlantic slave trade, colonies and resistance in the Americas, and how the world map changed. Once the coast drops below the horizon, a navigator needs to know heading, latitude and longitude. In the 15th century the first question had a good answer, the second a workable one, and the third none. Magellan, a Portuguese captain who offered his services to Spain, left Spain on 20 September 1519 with five ships and about 270 men. The course also notes that the claim that 1453 closed the spice routes is a common myth.

Two events show the stakes. On 7 June 1494 Spain and Portugal signed the Treaty of Tordesillas, which drew a line from pole to pole 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde islands. In the 18th century the French colony of Saint-Domingue produced more sugar and coffee than any other colony in the Caribbean, worked by hundreds of thousands of enslaved Africans, and in August 1791 the enslaved people of the northern plain rose in revolt.

Before you start

Voyages here start from the Indian Ocean spice markets of the 1400s, so Middle Ages gives the background on trade routes and the world before 1500. The navigation unit uses latitude, which Continents and oceans explains, and the maps unit compares old and new world maps.

When you finish

You will be able to say where pepper, cloves and nutmeg grew and why they were worth a voyage, and explain how a compass, an astrolabe and a caravel helped sailors find their way. You can compare the voyages of da Gama, Columbus and Magellan, describe what crossed the Atlantic in the Columbian exchange, and explain the scale of the slave trade and the resistance to it.

  1. 1The spice trade: pepper, cloves and nutmegUntil the 1500s, nutmeg grew naturally in only one place in the world: the Banda Islands, a group of small islands in what is now eastern Indonesia.
  2. 2Compass, astrolabe and caravel: finding the way at seaA sailor in 1480 could work out how far north he was from the height of the Pole Star, but nobody had a reliable way to tell how far east or west a ship had gone.
  3. 3Da Gama, Columbus and MagellanMagellan’s five ships left Spain in September 1519 with about 270 men. Three years later one ship, the Victoria, came home with 18.
  4. 4The Columbian exchangeBefore 1492 there were no potatoes in Ireland, no tomatoes in Italy, no chili peppers anywhere in Asia and no horses in the Americas.
  5. 5The Atlantic slave tradeBetween 1501 and 1866, about 12.5 million African people were forced onto ships bound for the Americas. About 10.7 million survived the crossing.
  6. 6Colonies and resistance in the AmericasOn 1 January 1804 Haiti declared independence, the first country founded by people who had freed themselves from slavery.
  7. 7How the world map changedIn 2003 the Library of Congress paid $10 million for one map: the only known copy of a 1507 world map, the first to use the name America.

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Sources for this course (16)
  • slavevoyages.org (Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database, "Estimates" and "The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database" methodology essay: 12.5 million embarked, 10.7 million disembarked, about 36,000 voyages)
  • US National Park Service, "The Middle Passage" (nps.gov/articles/the-middle-passage.htm)
  • The National Archives (UK)
  • "British transatlantic slave trade records" research guide and "The 1833 Abolition of Slavery Act and compensation claims" (nationalarchives.gov.uk)
  • Historic England, "Notable legal cases" (Zong)
  • legislation.gov.uk, Slavery Abolition Act 1833
  • Library of Congress, "Recognizing and Naming America: Waldseemüller’s 1507 Map" and press release PR 03-110 (18 June 2003)
  • The Mariners’ Museum, "Caravel" (exploration.marinersmuseum.org)
  • Smithsonian Magazine, "Alfred W. Crosby on the Columbian Exchange"
  • Britannica, "The Columbian Exchange", "Vasco da Gama", "Ferdinand Magellan", "Tupac Amaru II"
  • IIAS The Newsletter 89 (2021)
  • "Ambon 1623 / Banda 1621"
  • Encyclopedia.com (Gale)
  • "Gil Eannes passes the point of no return at Cape Bojador"
  • Brill, Journal of Jesuit Studies 13 (Shen Kuo 1088, Zhu Yu on ship compasses)
  • Natural Earth coastlines (public domain).

Checked: 2026-10-17