Questions tagged [age-of-discovery]
For questions related to new lands discoveries made by Europeans in the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries.
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What flag had a black cross blue field 1589?
What flag is blue background and black cross flags 1589?
Used by Giovanni Batista Boazio
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Why did Christopher Columbus underestimated that much when planning his trip to India? [duplicate]
On the one hand, Europeans knew about the roundness and size of our planet since Eratosthenes (third century BCE). The measurement was extraordinarily precise (~1% error).
On the other hand, the ...
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What is the first recorded contact with Taiwan by Europeans?
Apparently every book and website on or accessible through the internet repeats the exact same "they say..." "everyone knows..." story about the first European contact with Taiwan.¹...
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Were the Spanish conquistadors really motivated by myths like El Dorado?
I teach secondary school History classes. Our school library contains old academic works (from the 60s-80s) and unreliable children's academic literature. These all claim that ancient myths motivated ...
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Did 15th century Europeans not know about south-east Asia?
Columbus headed west across the Atlantic expecting to reach India, and initially thought that he had landed there.
His latitude for India was correct, but even if his estimates of distance and the ...
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Where did the term "Indies" come from?
According to this Wikipedia article:
Exploration of the East Indies by European powers began in the last three years of the 15th century and continued into the 16th century, led by the Portuguese ...
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What were the names of Amerigo Vespucci's ships?
What were the names of the ships that Amerigo Vespucci used during his exploratory cruises?
He was Italian; the American continent was named after him.
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When did people learn that Columbus actually discovered a New World? [duplicate]
I know that Christopher Columbus never learnt that the land he discovered was actually a new continent. Until his death he thought that he reached Asia. There probably was a hypothesis in the very ...
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Why could Phoenicians sail past Cape Bojador but later Europeans could not until 1434?
Cape Bojador is unknown to most people today but it was considered as the edge of the world for much of the worlds history. Any ship that sailed past it never returned. Only in the 15th century, the ...
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Why did the Portuguese permit an Italian commercial agent to accompany Vasco da Gama on the 4th Portuguese India Armada?
From Conquerors by Roger Crowley,
A second detachment of five ships under Estevao de Gama followed on April 1. The amplified expedition included a number of observers who would write eyewitness ...
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Was the fall of the Inca Empire inevitable? [closed]
Some time ago I watched a documentary on Inca Empire, since its creation to the death of Túpac Amaru. Although it wasn't stated explicitly, I came out of it with an impression that after Manco Inca ...
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Was the strait of Malacca a potential "chokepoint" during the age of discovery?
The Strait of Malacca runs between the east coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra and the Malaccan peninsula on the west coast Malaysia and is fairly narrow. It is the most direct route from India ...
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What prevented empires with territory in North Africa from expanding south of the Sahara? And vice versa [closed]
Almost all empires I've seen that existed north of Sahara, did not expand to the south. And the empires south of the Sahara did not expand to the north (except for post 15th century European ...
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Were crosses frequently used as communication while exploring?
Were big crosses/little crosses a common method of communication during the Age of Exploration?
I have read some sources, such as this, Robert and Roberts' book A History of New Mexico, and other ...
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Do maps dating back to 1489/90 show Ascension and St Helena even though these islands were supposedly only discovered in 1501 and 1502 respectively?
The 1504 Vesconte Maggiolo Map appears to be the first map to name and accurately locate the islands of St Helena and Ascension as single isloated islands.
Ascension was shown in a similar location ...
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