15th Century — The World at a Brief
Trade between the East and the West
The 15th Century was perhaps the most important one in the history of mankind. Right from the trade between Asia and Europe to the discovery of America, it all took place in the first half of the century.
India was a land known for its rich spices with the Eastern side of Asia too famous for its spices and cotton. Major parts of India was under the rule of the Delhi Sultanate and during this period the trade remained steady.
The majority of the trade between the west and the east was done via the silk route. The trade market was established in Constantinople (Modern day Turkey), with the Byzantine Empire and Vienna acting as the middlemen for the trade. The Europeans also established trade routes via the Mediterranean sea — Red sea — Arabian sea.
Trade was plush as the Europeans were heavily dependent on the spices and tea exports from Asia and this brought in the attention of the Ottoman Empire.
The trade takes a turn
The rise of Islam in the middle east led to the formation of the Ottoman Empire in the second half of the 13th Century. By 1453, the Ottoman Turks took over Constantinople thus ending the Byzantine Empire. With control over the spice routes both via land-sea links, the Ottoman Empire began levying heavy taxes for the trade.
The Western Europeans, not wanting to be dependent on an expansionist, non-Christian power for the lucrative commerce with the east, set out to find an alternate sea route around Africa as the Red sea route too was controlled by the Turks.
And thus began, the exploration by the Europeans for a new sea route to India. The mid-1400’s saw a series of expeditions from the Europeans as to find a route over the African Continent.
A route is found
Flat world theories, a series of strong winds and failures in crossing the African continent did not deter the Europeans from persisting behind a new route.
A Portuguese sailor in his mid 30's, starts his expedition to find a route and sets sail in 1497. He successfully crosses the cape of good hope and connects his fleet to the Arabian Sea. A year into his expedition, on 20th May 1498, Vasco Da Gama and his men, arrive in Calicut, India and by 1510 had established a settlement in Goa and history was never to be the same again.
The world map is about to change
The world according to explorers and the common people existed only from the Europe to the Eastern part of Asia (Not even Australia).
A young Spaniard, with the backing of the Monarchs from Spain, sets sail from his country in 1492 in search of a sea route to India across the African Continent. A few months in the sea, strong winds push his fleet of ships further West and he lands in a new continent altogether. Convinced that he has discovered India, he terms the natives there, Indians.
It was then that he realizes that it was not India, not any country in the Asian continent, but a whole new land that he had just landed in. Christopher Columbus had just discovered the American Continent and the world map was about to change.
The new world:
