Exploration

From the 15th through the 17th centuries, Europeans used their mastery of the seas to extend their power in Africa, Asia, and the Americas. ... In Europe, these successes shifted economic power within Europe from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic states.

Exploration, c. 1450-c. 1648

From the 15th through the 17th centuries, Europeans used their mastery of the seas to extend their power in Africa, Asia, and the Americas. In the 15th century, the Portuguese sought direct access by sea to the sources of African gold, ivory, and slaves. At the same time, the rise of Ottoman power in the eastern Mediterranean led to Ottoman control of the Mediterranean trade routes and increased the motivation of Iberians and then northern Europeans to explore possible sea routes to the east. The success and consequences of these explorations, and the maritime expansion that followed them, rested on European adaptation of Muslim and Chinese navigational technology as well as advances in military technology and cartography.

Political, economic, and religious rivalries among Europeans also stimulated maritime expansion. By the 17th century, Europeans had forged a global trade network that gradually edged out earlier Muslim and Chinese dominion in the Indian Ocean and the western Pacific. In Europe, these successes shifted economic power within Europe from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic states. In Asia, the Portuguese, Spanish, and Dutch competed for control of trade routes and trading stations. In the Americas, the Spanish and Portuguese led in the establishment of colonies, followed by the Dutch, French, and English. The pursuit of colonies was sustained by mercantilist economic theory, which promoted government management of economic imperatives and policies.

The creation of maritime empires was also animated by the religious fervor sweeping Europe during the Catholic and Protestant reformations. Global European expansion led to the conversion of indigenous populations in South and Central America, to an exchange of commodities and crops that enriched European and other civilizations that became part of the global trading network, and eventually to encounters and relationships that would have profound effects on Europe. The Columbian Exchange also unleashed several ecological disasters—notably the death of vast numbers of the Americas’ population in epidemics of European diseases, such as smallpox and measles, against which the native populations had no defenses. The new Atlantic trading system led to the establishment of the plantation system in the American colonies and the vast expansion of the African slave trade.

Source: https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/pdf/ap-european-history-course-and-exam-description.pdf