. The foundation [and] growth of the British Empire . gland began to serve its apprenticeship upon the seas,the necessary prelude to the foundation of the The Age ofmaritime empire which the future was to bring Discovery,forth. It was an age which felt the stirrings of vast newideas, which was not content with dreaming dreams, butpromptly sought to realise them. The year 1492 sawChristopher Columbus set sail across the unknown Atlanticwith three small caravels. A few months later he returnedin triumph with news of fair islands in the western , for many years, the seamen of Portugal
. The foundation [and] growth of the British Empire . gland began to serve its apprenticeship upon the seas,the necessary prelude to the foundation of the The Age ofmaritime empire which the future was to bring Discovery,forth. It was an age which felt the stirrings of vast newideas, which was not content with dreaming dreams, butpromptly sought to realise them. The year 1492 sawChristopher Columbus set sail across the unknown Atlanticwith three small caravels. A few months later he returnedin triumph with news of fair islands in the western , for many years, the seamen of Portugal had beenpushing steadily down the coast of Africa, discovering CapeVerde and the Gold Coast, and finally the Cape of Storms,which a far-seeing prince renamed the Cape of Good Hope. 12 HENRY VII 1492 At longth, in 1198, Vasco da Gaina capped all previousachievements by rounding the Cape and traversing theIndian Ocean until he set foot upon the shore of Indiaitself, and so for the first time brought Europe into effectivecontact with the gorgeous ( Fig. 1.—The World as imagined in 1492. An understanding of the condition of geographical know-ledge at this time is essential, because it supplies the clueGeographical to the motives underlying these great move-theories, ments. The best-informed minds of the timerecognised the fact that our planet is spherical in shape,but they underestimated its size. They held that on itssurface there was only one huge mass of land, consisting ofthe three continents of Europe, Africa and Asia. This landmass was thought to be surrounded on all sides by theocean, in which lay many islands of relatively unimportantdimensions. No geographer had as yet any inkling of theexistence of the continents now named North and SouthAmerica. 1496 JOHN CABOT 13 Here, then, was the theory upon which the early explorersworked. The motive power which caused the wealthy tofind money for their efforts was the hope of Cathay andcommercial gain. The e
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