The Search for an All-Water Route to India.—Overland routes were out of the question; there were none that could be made available, and so the search was made for a sea-route. Rather singularly the Venetians and Genoese, who had hitherto controlled this trade, took no part in the search; it was conducted by the Spanish and the Portuguese.
The Spanish monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella of Castile, fitted out an expedition under Christopher Columbus, a master-mariner and cartographer, the funds being provided by Isabella, who pledged her private property as security for the cost of the expedition. This expedition resulted in the discovery, October 10–21, 1492, of the West India Islands. In a subsequent voyage, Columbus discovered the mainland of South America.
Even before the voyage of Columbus, the Portuguese had been trying to find a way around Africa to India, and Pope Eugenius IV. had conferred on Portugal "all heathen lands from Cape Bojador eastward even to the Indies." Little by little, therefore, Portuguese navigators were pushing southward until, in 1487, Bartholomew Dias sighted the Cape of Good Hope, and got about as far as Algoa Bay. Then he unwillingly turned back because of the threats of his crew. It was a most remarkable voyage, and one of the shipmates of Dias was Bartholomew Columbus, a brother of the discoverer of the New World.
Ten years later, or five years after the voyage of Columbus, Vasco da Gama sailed from Lisbon for the Cape of Good Hope. As he passed the Cape he was terribly storm-tossed, but the storms carried him in a fortunate direction. And when at last he got his reckonings, he was off the coast of India; he therefore kept along the coast until in sight of a port. The port was the well-known city of Calicut. Two years later he returned to Europe by the same route, his ships laden with spices, precious stones, beautiful tapestries and brocades, ivory and bronzes. The long-sought sea-route to India had been discovered.
A HANSE CITY—HAMBURG, ALONG THE WATER-FRONT
Commerce in Western Europe.—After the discovery of the new route, Venice and Genoa were scarcely heard of in relation to commerce; they lost everything and gained nothing. The great commerce with the Orient was to have a new western terminus, and the latter was to be on the shores of the North and Baltic Seas.
The commerce between Europe and India stimulated trade in western Europe as well. As early as the twelfth century the manufacture of linen and woollen cloth had grown to be a very important industry that had resulted in the rapid growth of population. The older cities grew rapidly, and new ones sprang up wherever the commodities of trade were gathered, manufactured, or distributed.