The Age of European Exploration Essay -- European Europe History

The Age of European Exploration The age of exploration was filled with courageous voyagers and conquistadores from all over Europe, much like today, there was much competition for land rights. The main disputes were between Spain and Portugal. And these are the representatives from not only these two countries, but surrounding ones as well. Christopher Columbus was a sea captain from Genoa. He first tried to convince Portugal, then Spain to sponsor a voyage to Asia across the Atlantic. Columbus thought that the voyage would take two months, others said four months, but he left with enough food and supplies for only two months. He landed in the West Indes (Bahamas, Haiti, Cuba) when the two months of supplies ran out. Their voyage began on August 3, 1492, from Palos, Spain and ended on October 12 when land was sighted at the Americas. Amerigo Vespucci, an Italian that represented the Medici Bank in Spain, chartered the coastline of Central America and described this as the "Mundus Novus", meaning "New World". In 1507, a German carto...