New Worlds

Several factors made the "Age of Discovery" possible. A new confidence in human capability characterized thinking during the European Renaissance and generated curiosity and experimentation. New technologies played a big role in exploration. For example, in the 15th century, European shipbuilders developed the caravel, a light, maneuverable ship with triangular sails that navigators could sail into the wind, a remarkable achievement. At the same time, astronomers developed the astrolabe. This instrument allowed sailors to accurately determine their latitude (position on the ocean between the equator and the north or south pole). 

Western European nations, first Portugal and Spain, then England, France, and the Netherlands, led the way in exploring and colonizing new lands. With their new knowledge, mindsets, and inventions, explorers from these nations first sailed south around Africa to India and China. Perhaps the most remarkable new lands discovered were North and South America, which the Europeans called the "New World," for their existence had not yet been suspected in Europe. The Europeans encountered people with different cultures in the lands they discovered. Because of their technologies, the Europeans gradually came to dominate the New World.

In time the Europeans would discover and map virtually all the world's land.  By the beginning of the 18th century (1700s), there were only a few regions of the globe they had not discovered. One of these was the North Pacific Ocean and the far reaches of the Asian and North American continents.

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