Refine your search

The results of your search are listed below alongside the search terms you entered on the previous page. You can refine your search by amending any of the parameters in the form and resubmitting it.

Select all Deselect all Add selection to lightbox
Large Small
Thumbnails per page
Liulichang is a district in Beijing known for a series of traditional Chinese stone houses selling various crafts, arts and antiques. It is one of Beijing's traditional old quarters.
Amerigo Vespucci (9 March 1454 - 22 February 1512) was an Italian explorer, navigator and cartographer, born and brought up by his uncle in the Republic of Florence, in what is now Italy. Vespucci worked for Lorenzo de Medici and his son, Giovanni. In 1492, he was sent to work at the Seville branch of the Medici bank.<br/><br/> At the invitation of King Manuel I of Portugal, Vespucci participated as an observer in several voyages that explored the east coast of South America between 1499 and 1502. Manuel's commander Pedro Alvares Cabral, on his way to the Cape of Good Hope and India in 1500, had discovered Brazil at latitude 16°52'S. Portugal claimed this land by the Treaty of Tordesillas, and the king wished to know whether it was merely an island or part of the continent that Spanish explorers had encountered further north.<br/><br/> Vespucci, having already been to the Brazilian shoulder, seemed the person best qualified to go as an observer with the new expedition. Vespucci did not command at the start; in fact, he had no experience in piloting a ship. The Portuguese captain was Gonçalo Coelho, but Vespucci took charge at the request of the Portuguese officers. On the first of these voyages, he was aboard the ship that discovered that South America extended much further south than previously thought.
Yahyâ ibn Mahmûd al-Wâsitî was a 13th-century Arab Islamic artist. Al-Wasiti was born in Wasit in southern Iraq. He was noted for his illustrations of the Maqam of al-Hariri.<br/><br/> Maqāma (literally 'assemblies') are an (originally) Arabic literary genre of rhymed prose with intervals of poetry in which rhetorical extravagance is conspicuous. The 10th century author Badī' al-Zaman al-Hamadhāni is said to have invented the form, which was extended by al-Hariri of Basra in the next century. Both authors' maqāmāt center on trickster figures whose wanderings and exploits in speaking to assemblies of the powerful are conveyed by a narrator.<br/><br/> Manuscripts of al-Harīrī's Maqāmāt, anecdotes of a roguish wanderer Abu Zayd from Saruj, were frequently illustrated with miniatures.
James Cook FRS RN (7 November 1728 – 14 February 1779) was a British explorer, navigator and cartographer, ultimately rising to the rank of Captain in the Royal Navy. Cook was the first to map Newfoundland prior to making three voyages to the Pacific Ocean during which he achieved the first European contact with the eastern coastline of Australia and the Hawaiian Islands as well as the first recorded circumnavigation of New Zealand. Cook died in Hawaii in a fight with Hawaiians during his third exploratory voyage in the Pacific in 1779.
The Royal Observatory, Greenwich (formerly the Royal Greenwich Observatory or RGO), in London played a major role in the history of astronomy and navigation, and is best known as the location of the prime meridian. It is situated on a hill in Greenwich Park, overlooking the River Thames.<br/><br/> The observatory was commissioned in 1675 by King Charles II, with the foundation stone being laid on 10 August.
Marshall Islands stick charts were made by native Marshallese sailors to navigate the Pacific Ocean by canoe. The charts were a representation of major oceanic swell patterns and showed the ways the islands disrupted these patterns. Stick charts were primarily made from tied together coconut fronds, with island locations displayed on the charts with shells.<br/><br/> Each chart was unique and interpretative that most could only be deciphered by the individual navigator who had made it. Stick charts came to an end after World War II, once new electronic technologies allowed for easier travel among islands and led to the decline of canoe use.
A balloon is conceptually the simplest of all flying machines. The balloon is a fabric envelope filled with a gas that is lighter than the surrounding atmosphere. As the entire balloon is less dense than its surroundings, it rises, taking along with it a basket, attached underneath, which carries passengers or payload.<br/><br/> Although a balloon has no propulsion system, a degree of directional control is possible through making the balloon rise or sink in altitude to find favorable wind directions.
Marshall Islands stick charts were made by native Marshallese sailors to navigate the Pacific Ocean by canoe. The charts were a representation of major oceanic swell patterns and showed the ways the islands disrupted these patterns. Stick charts were primarily made from tied together coconut fronds, with island locations displayed on the charts with shells.<br/><br/> Each chart was unique and interpretative that most could only be deciphered by the individual navigator who had made it. Stick charts came to an end after World War II, once new electronic technologies allowed for easier travel among islands and led to the decline of canoe use.
Marshall Islands stick charts were made by native Marshallese sailors to navigate the Pacific Ocean by canoe. The charts were a representation of major oceanic swell patterns and showed the ways the islands disrupted these patterns. Stick charts were primarily made from tied together coconut fronds, with island locations displayed on the charts with shells.<br/><br/> Each chart was unique and interpretative that most could only be deciphered by the individual navigator who had made it. Stick charts came to an end after World War II, once new electronic technologies allowed for easier travel among islands and led to the decline of canoe use.
An astrolabe (Persian: اسطرلاب‎, Greek: ἀστρολάβος astrolabos, 'star-taker') is an elaborate inclinometer, historically used by astronomers, navigators, and astrologers. Its many uses include locating and predicting the positions of the Sun, Moon, planets, and stars, determining local time given local latitude and vice-versa, surveying, triangulation, and to cast horoscopes.<br/><br/> It was used in classical antiquity, the Islamic Golden Age, the European Middle Ages and Renaissance for all these purposes. In the Islamic world, it was also used to calculate the Qibla (direction of Mecca) and to find the times for salat / namaaz, prayers.<br/><br/> There is often confusion between the astrolabe and the mariner's astrolabe. While the astrolabe could be useful for determining latitude on land, it was an awkward instrument for use on the heaving deck of a ship or in wind. The mariner's astrolabe was developed to solve these problems.
Mauritius was an official settlement of the Dutch East India Company on the island of Mauritius between 1638 and 1710, and used a refreshing station for passing ships.<br/><br/> It was already frequented by Dutch ships from 1598 onwards, but only settled in 1638, to prevent the French and the British from settling on the island.
Yahyâ ibn Mahmûd al-Wâsitî was a 13th-century Arab Islamic artist. Al-Wasiti was born in Wasit in southern Iraq. He was noted for his illustrations of the Maqam of al-Hariri.<br/><br/> Maqāma (literally 'assemblies') are an (originally) Arabic literary genre of rhymed prose with intervals of poetry in which rhetorical extravagance is conspicuous. The 10th century author Badī' al-Zaman al-Hamadhāni is said to have invented the form, which was extended by al-Hariri of Basra in the next century. Both authors' maqāmāt center on trickster figures whose wanderings and exploits in speaking to assemblies of the powerful are conveyed by a narrator.<br/><br/> Manuscripts of al-Harīrī's Maqāmāt, anecdotes of a roguish wanderer Abu Zayd from Saruj, were frequently illustrated with miniatures.
Yahyâ ibn Mahmûd al-Wâsitî was a 13th-century Arab Islamic artist. Al-Wasiti was born in Wasit in southern Iraq. He was noted for his illustrations of the Maqam of al-Hariri.<br/><br/> Maqāma (literally 'assemblies') are an (originally) Arabic literary genre of rhymed prose with intervals of poetry in which rhetorical extravagance is conspicuous. The 10th century author Badī' al-Zaman al-Hamadhāni is said to have invented the form, which was extended by al-Hariri of Basra in the next century. Both authors' maqāmāt center on trickster figures whose wanderings and exploits in speaking to assemblies of the powerful are conveyed by a narrator.<br/><br/> Manuscripts of al-Harīrī's Maqāmāt, anecdotes of a roguish wanderer Abu Zayd from Saruj, were frequently illustrated with miniatures.
Yahyâ ibn Mahmûd al-Wâsitî was a 13th-century Arab Islamic artist. Al-Wasiti was born in Wasit in southern Iraq. He was noted for his illustrations of the Maqam of al-Hariri.<br/><br/> Maqāma (literally 'assemblies') are an (originally) Arabic literary genre of rhymed prose with intervals of poetry in which rhetorical extravagance is conspicuous. The 10th century author Badī' al-Zaman al-Hamadhāni is said to have invented the form, which was extended by al-Hariri of Basra in the next century. Both authors' maqāmāt center on trickster figures whose wanderings and exploits in speaking to assemblies of the powerful are conveyed by a narrator.<br/><br/> Manuscripts of al-Harīrī's Maqāmāt, anecdotes of a roguish wanderer Abu Zayd from Saruj, were frequently illustrated with miniatures.
Piri Reis (full name Hajı Ahmed Muhiddin Piri; Reis was a Turkish military rank equivalent to that of captain) was an Ottoman admiral, geographer and cartographer born between 1465 and 1470 and died in 1554 or 1555.<br/><br/> He is primarily known today for his maps and charts collected in his Kitab-ı Bahriye (Book of Navigation), a book which contains detailed information on navigation, as well as very accurate charts (for its time) describing the important ports and cities of the Mediterranean Sea. He gained fame as a cartographer when a small part of his first world map (prepared in 1513) was discovered in 1929 at the Topkapı Palace in Istanbul. His world map is the oldest known Turkish atlas showing the New World, and one of the oldest maps of America still in existence in the world (the oldest known map of America that is still in existence is the map drawn by Juan de la Cosa in 1500, which is conserved in the Naval Museum (Museo Naval) of Madrid, Spain). Piri Reis' map is centered on the Sahara at the latitude of the Tropic of Cancer.<br/><br/> In 1528 Piri Reis drew a second world map, of which a small fragment (showing Greenland and North America from Labrador and Newfoundland in the north to Florida, Cuba and parts of Central America in the south) still survives. According to his imprinting text, he had drawn his maps using about twenty foreign charts and mappae mundi (Arab, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Indian and Greek) including one of Christopher Columbus.
Miniature of a whale and a sailing boat, from a Bestiary, England, 13th century, British Library, Harley MS 4751, fol. 69r.
Amerigo Vespucci was born and brought up by his uncle in the Republic of Florence, in what is now Italy. The Americas are generally believed to have derived their name from the feminized Latin version of his first name.<br/><br/> At the invitation of King Manuel I of Portugal, Vespucci participated as observer in several voyages that explored the east coast of South America between 1499 and 1502. Manuel's commander Pedro Álvares Cabral, on his way to the Cape of Good Hope and India in 1500, had discovered Brazil at latitude 16°52'S. Portugal claimed this land by the Treaty of Tordesillas, and the King wished to know whether it was merely an island or part of the continent that Spanish explorers had encountered further north.<br/><br/> Vespucci, having already been to the Brazilian shoulder, seemed the person best qualified to go as an observer with the new expedition Manuel was sending. Vespucci did not command at the start - the Portuguese captain was probably Gonçalo Coelho - but ultimately took charge at the request of the Portuguese officers. Vespucci, in all probability, voyaged to America at the time noted, but he did not have command and as yet had no practical experience piloting a ship. On the first of these voyages he was aboard the ship that discovered that South America extended much further south than previously thought.
A compass rose is a figure on a map, a nautical chart or sometimes a paving stone or wall, used to display the orientation of the cardinal directions, — north, south, east, and west. It is also the term for the graduated markings found on traditional magnetic compasess.<br/><br/> Today, the idea of a compass rose features in almost all navigational systems. Early forms of the compass rose were known as wind roses, since no differentiation was made between a cardinal direction and the winds that emanated from that direction.
A compass rose is a figure on a map, a nautical chart or sometimes a paving stone or wall, used to display the orientation of the cardinal directions, — north, south, east, and west. It is also the term for the graduated markings found on traditional magnetic compasses.<br/><br/> Today, the idea of a compass rose features in almost all navigational systems. Early forms of the compass rose were known as wind roses, since no differentiation was made between a cardinal direction and the winds that emanated from that direction.
A portolan chart from 1492, the oldest known signed and dated chart of Portuguese origin. Cartography technologies greatly advanced during the Age of Discovery. Iberian mapmakers in particular focused on practical charts to use as navigational aids.<br/><br/> Unlike Spanish maps which were considered a state secret, Portuguese maps were used by other countries, and Portuguese cartographers drew upon the skill and knowledge of other cultures, notably Islamic, as well.
James Cook FRS RN (7 November 1728 – 14 February 1779) was a British explorer, navigator and cartographer, ultimately rising to the rank of Captain in the Royal Navy. Cook was the first to map Newfoundland prior to making three voyages to the Pacific Ocean during which he achieved the first European contact with the eastern coastline of Australia and the Hawaiian Islands as well as the first recorded circumnavigation of New Zealand. Cook died in Hawaii in a fight with Hawaiians during his third exploratory voyage in the Pacific in 1779.
Madagascar was the scene of the activities of the French East India Company. The French East India Company (French: La Compagnie Française des Indes Orientales or Compagnie Française pour le Commerce des Indes Orientales) was a commercial enterprise, founded in 1664 to compete with the British and Dutch East India companies in colonial India.<br/><br/> Planned by Jean-Baptiste Colbert, it was chartered by King Louis XIV for the purpose of trading in the Eastern Hemisphere. It resulted from the fusion of three earlier companies, the 1660 Compagnie de Chine, the Compagnie d'Orient and Compagnie de Madagascar. The first Director General for the Company was De Faye, who was adjoined two Directors belonging to the two most successful trading organizations at that time: François Caron, who had spent 30 years working for the Dutch East India Company, including more than 20 years in Japan, and Marcara Avanchintz, a powerful Armenian trader from Isfahan, Persia.
Probably born in Venice around 1254 CE, Marco Polo was raised by his aunt and uncle after his mother died. His father, Niccolo, was a Venetian merchant who left before Marco was born to trade in the Middle East. Niccolo and his brother Maffeo passed through much of Asia and met with Mongol emperor Kublai Khan who reportedly invited them to be ambassadors. In 1269, Niccolo and Maffeo returned to Venice, meeting Marco for the first time.<br/><br/> In 1271, Marco Polo, aged 17, with his father and his uncle, set off for Asia, travelling through Constantinople, Baghdad, Persia, Kashgar, China and Burma. They returned to Venice 24 years and 15,000 miles later with many riches. Upon their return, Venice was at war with Genoa, and Marco Polo was imprisoned. He spent the few months of his imprisonment dictating his adventures to a fellow inmate, Rustichello da Pisa, who incorporated the tales into a book he called 'The Travels of Marco Polo'. The book documented the use of paper money and the burning of coal, and opened European eyes to the wonders of the East.
Asia is the Earth's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and comprises 30% of its land area. With approximately 4.3 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population.<br/><br/> The boundaries of Asia are culturally determined, as there is no clear geographical separation between it and Europe, which together form one continuous landmass called Eurasia. The most commonly accepted boundaries place Asia to the east of the Suez Canal, the Ural River, and the Ural Mountains, and south of the Caucasus Mountains (or the Kuma–Manych Depression) and the Caspian and Black Seas.It is bounded on the east by the Pacific Ocean, on the south by the Indian Ocean and on the north by the Arctic Ocean.
The Dutch East India Company (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie or VOC in Dutch, literally &quot;United East Indian Company&quot;) was a chartered company established in 1602, when the States-General of the Netherlands granted it a 21-year monopoly to carry out colonial activities in Asia. It was the first multinational corporation in the world and the first company to issue stock. It was also arguably the world's first megacorporation, possessing quasi-governmental powers, including the ability to wage war, negotiate treaties, coin money, and establish colonies. It ceased to function in 1798.
Portuguese explorer Prince Henry, known as the Navigator, was the first European to methodically explore Africa and the oceanic route to the Indies. From his residence in the Algarve region of southern Portugal, he directed successive expeditions to circumnavigate Africa and reach India.<br/><br/> In 1420, Henry sent an expedition to secure the uninhabited but strategic island of Madeira. In 1425, he tried to secure the Canary Islands as well, but these were already under firm Castilian control. In 1431, another Portuguese expedition reached and annexed the Azores.
At the end of the 18th century, the first paper money appeared in the Netherlands Indies. The notes were issued by the Dutch East India Company (VOC) that represented the Dutch interests in the East.<br/><br/> The Dutch East Indies, or Netherlands East Indies, (Dutch: Nederlands-Indië; Indonesian: Hindia-Belanda) was the Dutch colony that became modern Indonesia following World War II. It was formed from the nationalised colonies of the former Dutch East India Company that came under the administration of the Netherlands in 1800.<br/><br/> During the 19th century, Dutch possessions and its hegemony were expanded, reaching their greatest extent in the early 20th century, defining the borders of modern-day Indonesia. The colony was based on rigid racial and social categorisations with a Dutch elite living separate from their native subjects.
The Dutch East India Company (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie or VOC in Dutch, literally &quot;United East Indian Company&quot;) was a chartered company established in 1602, when the States-General of the Netherlands granted it a 21-year monopoly to carry out colonial activities in Asia. It was the first multinational corporation in the world and the first company to issue stock. It was also arguably the world's first megacorporation, possessing quasi-governmental powers, including the ability to wage war, negotiate treaties, coin money, and establish colonies. It ceased to function in 1798.
This is the earliest English language map of Africa. This map forms part of the first general atlas of the world produced in England.<br/><br/> This famous map is from John Speed’s <i>Prospect of the World</i>, the first general atlas produced in Great Britain, prepared in 1626 and first published in 1627 by Humble and then in subsequent editions to 1676. This map is from the edition of 1676.
This manuscript map of Java and the tip of northern Australia is a copy of an earlier work by the Malaysian-Portuguese cartographer Emanuel Godinho de Eredia (1563-1623). In the 16th century, Portugal sent several expeditions to explore the islands south of Malaysia; it is possible that they gained some knowledge about the geography of Australia from these missions. Some scholars have speculated that the Malays had a knowledge of Australia, which Eredia somehow absorbed. The first documented European sighting of Australia was by the Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon, in 1606.
The East India Company (also the East India Trading Company, English East India Company, and then the British East India Company) was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China.<br/><br/> The oldest among several similarly formed European East India Companies, the Company was granted an English Royal Charter, under the name Governor and Company of Merchants of London Trading into the East Indies, by Elizabeth I on 31 December 1600. It ceased to trade in 1857.
The Cantino planisphere (or Cantino World Map) is the earliest surviving map showing Portuguese geographic discoveries in the east and west. It is named after Alberto Cantino, an agent for the Duke of Ferrara, who successfully smuggled it from Portugal to Italy in 1502.<br/><br/> The map is particularly notable for portraying a fragmentary record of the Brazilian coast, discovered in 1500 by the Portuguese explorer Pedro Álvares Cabral, and for depicting the African coast of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans with a remarkable accuracy and detail.<br/><br/> It was valuable at the beginning of the sixteenth century because it showed detailed and up-to-date strategic information in a time when geographic knowledge of the world was growing at a fast pace. It is important in our days because it contains unique historical information about the maritime exploration and the evolution of nautical cartography in a particularly interesting period.<br/><br/> The Cantino planisphere is the earliest extant nautical chart where places (in Africa and parts of Brazil and India) are depicted according to their astronomically observed latitudes.
The East India Company (also the East India Trading Company, English East India Company, and then the British East India Company) was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China. The oldest among several similarly formed European East India Companies, the Company was granted an English Royal Charter, under the name Governor and Company of Merchants of London Trading into the East Indies, by Elizabeth I on 31 December 1600. It ceased to trade in 1857.
The Boucicaut Master or Master of the Hours for Marshal Boucicaut was an anonymous French or Flemish miniaturist and illuminator active between 1400 and 1430 in Paris. He worked in the International Gothic style.<br/><br/> He is named after his illustrated Book of Hours for Jean II Le Meingre Boucicaut, Marshal of France, which was created between 1410 and 1415. This Book of Hours is now in the Musée Jacquemart-André in Paris.
Vice Admiral Sir Francis Drake (1540 –96) was an English sea captain, privateer, navigator, slaver, a renowned pirate, and a politician of the Elizabethan era. Elizabeth I of England awarded Drake a knighthood in 1581. He was second-in-command of the English fleet against the Spanish Armada in 1588, subordinate only to Charles Howard and the Queen herself. He died of dysentery in January 1596 after unsuccessfully attacking San Juan, Puerto Rico.<br/><br/> His exploits were legendary, making him a hero to the English but a pirate to the Spaniards. King Philip II was claimed to have offered a reward of 20,000 ducats, about US $6.5 million by modern standards, for his life.<br/><br/> He led the first English circumnavigation of the world, from 1577 to 1580, during which he visited the Spice Islands in the East Indies.
Amerigo Vespucci (9 March 1454 - 22 February 1512) was an Italian explorer, navigator and cartographer, born and brought up by his uncle in the Republic of Florence, in what is now Italy. Vespucci worked for Lorenzo de Medici and his son, Giovanni. In 1492, he was sent to work at the Seville branch of the Medici bank.<br/><br/> At the invitation of King Manuel I of Portugal, Vespucci participated as an observer in several voyages that explored the east coast of South America between 1499 and 1502. Manuel's commander Pedro Alvares Cabral, on his way to the Cape of Good Hope and India in 1500, had discovered Brazil at latitude 16°52'S. Portugal claimed this land by the Treaty of Tordesillas, and the king wished to know whether it was merely an island or part of the continent that Spanish explorers had encountered further north.<br/><br/> Vespucci, having already been to the Brazilian shoulder, seemed the person best qualified to go as an observer with the new expedition. Vespucci did not command at the start; in fact, he had no experience in piloting a ship. The Portuguese captain was Gonçalo Coelho, but Vespucci took charge at the request of the Portuguese officers. On the first of these voyages, he was aboard the ship that discovered that South America extended much further south than previously thought.<br/><br/> The expeditions became widely known in Europe after two accounts attributed to Vespucci were published between 1502 and 1504. In 1507, Martin Waldseemuller produced a world map on which he named the new continent America after Vespucci's first name, Amerigo.
Following Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama's success in discovering a sea route around Africa to India in 1498, King Manuel I commissioned Pedro Alvares Cabral to lead a second voyage of 13 ships and 1,500 men to India. Although he intended to stay close to the west coast of Africa, Cabral sailed far off course and accidentally chanced upon the coast of South America.<br/><br/> According to the Treaty of Tordesillas of 1494, any land falling within 370 leagues [2.060 km] west of the Cape Verde Islands was to belong to Portugal, whereas any land discovered west of this meridian would be Spanish territory, as decreed by Spanish-born Pope Alexander VI. The coastline of Brazil therefore fell within the Portuguese sphere of influence and was colonized by Manuel I.<br/><br/> Cabral left two men there as ambassadors and continued across the south Atlantic, rounded the Cape of Good Hope, fought off Arab merchants in East Africa, and finally reached Calicut in India in September 1500.
Following Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama's success in discovering a sea route around Africa to India in 1498, King Manuel I commissioned Pedro Alvares Cabral to lead a second voyage of 13 ships and 1,500 men to India. Although he intended to stay close to the west coast of Africa, Cabral sailed far off course and accidentally chanced upon the coast of South America.<br/><br/> According to the Treaty of Tordesillas of 1494, any land falling within 370 leagues [2.060 km] west of the Cape Verde Islands was to belong to Portugal, whereas any land discovered west of this meridian would be Spanish territory, as decreed by Spanish-born Pope Alexander VI. The coastline of Brazil therefore fell within the Portuguese sphere of influence and was colonized by Manuel I.<br/><br/> Cabral left two men there as ambassadors and continued across the south Atlantic, rounded the Cape of Good Hope, fought off Arab merchants in East Africa, and finally reached Calicut in India in September 1500.
Vasco da Gama (1460 or 1469 – 1524) was a Portuguese explorer, one of the most successful in the Age of Discovery, and the commander of the first ships to sail directly from Europe to India. Under the reign of King Manuel I, Portugal discovered Brazil in 1500. Meanwhile, da Gama set sail from Lisbon on July 8, 1497, with a fleet of four ships and 170 men. He sailed around the Cape of Good Hope, impersonated a Muslim in Mozambique, resorted to piracy in Kenya, and finally landed in Calicut in India on May 20, 1498. For a short time in 1524, he was Governor of Portuguese India under the title of Viceroy.
Vasco da Gama (1460 or 1469 – 1524) was a Portuguese explorer, one of the most successful in the Age of Discovery, and the commander of the first ships to sail directly from Europe to India. Under the reign of King Manuel I, Portugal discovered Brazil in 1500. Meanwhile, da Gama set sail from Lisbon on July 8, 1497, with a fleet of four ships and 170 men. He sailed around the Cape of Good Hope, impersonated a Muslim in Mozambique, resorted to piracy in Kenya, and finally landed in Calicut in India on May 20, 1498. For a short time in 1524, he was Governor of Portuguese India under the title of Viceroy.
Vasco da Gama (1460 or 1469 – 1524) was a Portuguese explorer, one of the most successful in the Age of Discovery, and the commander of the first ships to sail directly from Europe to India. Under the reign of King Manuel I, Portugal discovered Brazil in 1500. Meanwhile, da Gama set sail from Lisbon on July 8, 1497, with a fleet of four ships and 170 men. He sailed around the Cape of Good Hope, impersonated a Muslim in Mozambique, resorted to piracy in Kenya, and finally landed in Calicut in India on May 20, 1498. For a short time in 1524, he was Governor of Portuguese India under the title of Viceroy.
Vasco da Gama (1460 or 1469 – 1524) was a Portuguese explorer, one of the most successful in the Age of Discovery, and the commander of the first ships to sail directly from Europe to India. Under the reign of King Manuel I, Portugal discovered Brazil in 1500. Meanwhile, da Gama set sail from Lisbon on July 8, 1497, with a fleet of four ships and 170 men. He sailed around the Cape of Good Hope, impersonated a Muslim in Mozambique, resorted to piracy in Kenya, and finally landed in Calicut in India on May 20, 1498. For a short time in 1524, he was Governor of Portuguese India under the title of Viceroy.
During the reign of Manuel I (1495-1521), Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama discovered a maritime route to India around Africa (1498); Portuguese Pedro Alvares Cabral discovered Brazil (1500); Portuguese Francisco de Almeida was appointed first viceroy of India (1505); and between 1503 and 1515, Alfonso de Albuquerque secured a monopoly on Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean maritime trade routes for Portugal. It was no surprise King Manuel was nicknamed 'Emanuel the Fortunate'.
The Italian cities of Venice and Genoa dominated trade with the East in the 1300s though they were often at war with each other. Situated on the Adriatic Sea, Venice traded regularly with the Byzantine Empire and the Muslim world extensively.<br/><br/> By the late 13th century, Venice was the most prosperous city in all of Europe. At the peak of its power and wealth, it had 36,000 sailors operating 3,300 ships, dominating Mediterranean commerce. During this time, Venice's leading families vied with each other to build the grandest palaces and support the work of the greatest and most talented artists. Venice's decline was swift though—in between plagues of the Black Death in 1348 and 1575 that devastated the population, Venice was defeated by the Ottoman Turks and lost influence in Constantinople by the 1450s.<br/><br/> After Columbus discovered the New World, new trade routes were established to the East via the Americas, and Venice's monopoly of trade routes via the Arabian Sea was promptly ignored by other European powers.
The period from the mid-8th century to the mid-13th century is considered the Islamic Golden Age. It was a time when Arabs and Muslims made great strides in the fields of science, engineering, education, poetry, philosophy, geography, trade, agriculture, the arts, economics, industry, law, literature, navigation, philosophy, sociology and technology. In the Islamic world, astronomy was studied fastidiously to calculate the direction of the Qibla and to fix the times for Salah, Muslim prayers, as well as to aid sailors and navigators.
The East India Company (also the East India Trading Company, English East India Company, and then the British East India Company) was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China. The oldest among several similarly formed European East India Companies, the Company was granted an English Royal Charter, under the name Governor and Company of Merchants of London Trading into the East Indies, by Elizabeth I on 31 December 1600. It ceased to trade in 1857.
France showed a strong interest in Morocco from as early as 1830. Recognition by the United Kingdom in 1904 of France's sphere of influence in Morocco provoked a reaction from the German Empire; the crisis of June 1905 was resolved at the Algeciras Conference, Spain in 1906, which formalized France's 'special position' and entrusted policing of Morocco jointly to France and Spain.<br/><br/> A second Moroccan crisis provoked by Berlin, increased tensions between European powers. The Treaty of Fez (signed on March 30, 1912) made Morocco a protectorate of France.
Portuguese explorer Prince Henry, known as the Navigator, was the first European to methodically explore Africa and the oceanic route to the Indies. From his residence in the Algarve region of southern Portugal, he directed successive expeditions to circumnavigate Africa and reach India.<br/><br/> In 1420, Henry sent an expedition to secure the uninhabited but strategic island of Madeira. In 1425, he tried to secure the Canary Islands as well, but these were already under firm Castilian control. In 1431, another Portuguese expedition reached and annexed the Azores.