Competition for access to Asian commerce drove both the Portuguese route around Africa and the Spanish westward voyage. Portuguese sailors reached the Indian Ocean by following the African coast, while the Spanish reached the Americas expecting to find a western route to Asia. The inherited term "Indians" for Native Americans shows how geographical names can preserve mistaken assumptions. A joke that geographers became good at mapping because they kept getting lost points to the practical importance of cartography and navigation in the same broad period. These connections place Mediterranean trade within the oceanic exploration that reshaped European geographical knowledge.
Notable Point · 2:57-4:24
Oceanic exploration as a search for Asian trade routes
Portuguese and Spanish voyages show how the pursuit of Asian commerce pushed Europeans toward routes around Africa and west across the Atlantic.