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Jan 1, 1418
Prince Henry starts a navigation school
In 1418, Prince Henry started the first school for oceanic navigation and an astronomical observatory at Sagres, Portugal. In his school, the students were trained to nagvigate, map-make, and they learned science. All in order to sail down the west coast of Africa. -
Oct 10, 1487
Bartolomeu Dias rounds the southern tip of Africa
King John II of Portugal , appointed Bartolomeu Dias, on 10 October 1487, to head an expedition of sailing around the southern tip of Africa in hopes of finding a tradBartolomeu Dias was a nobleman of the Portuguese royal household and was a Portuguese explorer who sailed around Africa's southernmost tip, in 1488. -
Oct 12, 1492
Christopher Columbus reaches the Caribbean
On October 12, 1492, Christopher Columbus landed on a small island that he called San Salvador. Columbus believed he had reached the Indies, otherwise known as the islands southwest of India that included Malaysia and Indonesia. -
Jun 7, 1494
Spain and Portugal sign the Treaty of Tordesillas
In 1494, the Treaty of Tordesillas was signed at Tordesillas, which is now in Valladolid province, in Spain, on 7 June 1494, and it divided the newly discovered lands outside Europe between Spain and Portugal, along a meridian 370 leagueswest of the Cape Verde islands that are off the west coast of Africa. -
May 20, 1498
Vasco da Gama reaches the port of Calicut on the Indian Ocean
In 1497 Vasco daGama Reached the port of Calicut on the indian ocean. Vasco da Gama's expedition was successful beyond his thoughts, as he brought in cargo that was worth sixty times the cost of the expedition. -
Jan 1, 1519
Ferdinand Magellan leads a Spanish expedition to the Philippines
In Ferdinand Magellan led a Spanish expedition to the philippines, Magellan's expedition of 1519–1522 became the first expedition to sail from the Atlantic Ocean into the Pacific Ocean, and the first to cross the Pacific. Also it completed the first circumnavigation of the Earth, however Ferdinand Magellan himself did not complete the entire voyage, seeing as he was killed during the Battle of Mactan in the Philippines. -
Jan 1, 1565
Spain begins settlements in the Philippines
The Spanish expedition of the world's first circumnavigation started by Ferdinand Magellan in 1519, and completed by Juan Sebastian Elcano in 1522, achieved what Columbus had longed for. A westward route to Asia and the Spice Islands. In 1565 navigator Miguel Lopez de Legazpi arrived in Guam and the Philippine Islands establishing the Spanish East Indies. Thus starting Settlements in the Philippines. -
France sets up its own East India Company
Sometime in the verry early 1600's the Compagnie des Indes Orientales was granted a 50-year monopoly on French trade in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, in a region stretching from the Cape of Good Hope to the Straits of Magellan.The French monarch also granted the Company a concession in perpetuity for the island of Madagascar, as well as any other territories it could conquer. -
The Dutch establish a trading center on Java
On the coast of java, Jan Pieterszoon Coen destroyed the townof Jakarta, and rebuilt it as a Dutch trading center called Batavia. Jan Pieterszoon Coen reconquered Jakarta, and ended up destroying most of the town in the process, but he did however rebuild the city and fort.
