Why Europe sailed west

Where spices came from

In the 1400s, Europeans used spices to flavor food, in medicine and as a sign of wealth. But pepper, cinnamon and cloves didn't grow in Europe. Pepper came from southern India, cinnamon from Sri Lanka, and cloves from a few small islands in what is now Indonesia, in Southeast Asia.

Many hands, many markups

Spices traveled thousands of miles to reach Europe, and they changed hands many times on the way. Asian and Arab merchants carried them across the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea to markets in Egypt and Syria. There, traders from Venice bought them and shipped them across the Mediterranean to the rest of Europe.

Each of these middlemen added a markup: a little extra on top of what they paid, to make a profit. By the time pepper reached a kitchen in Europe, its price was many times what it cost where it grew.

Looking for a way around

Venice and its trading partners controlled most of the profit. Countries on the Atlantic edge of Europe, like Portugal and Spain, were mostly shut out. If they could sail to Asia themselves, they could skip the middlemen and keep the profit.

• Portugal worked its way down the coast of Africa for decades. Bartolomeu Dias rounded Africa's southern tip in 1488, and Vasco da Gama reached Calicut, India, in 1498.
• Spain bet on a different idea: sail west across the Atlantic to reach Asia. The Spanish crown backed Christopher Columbus, who sailed in 1492. He didn't reach Asia. The Americas were in the way: lands most Europeans of his time didn't know existed (Norse sailors had reached them about 500 years earlier).

Trade wasn't the only reason. Many explorers and rulers also wanted gold, power and to spread Christianity. Teachers often sum this up as "gold, God and glory."

Try it yourself

Look at the spices in your kitchen. Where were they grown? Pepper, cinnamon and cloves still come mostly from South and Southeast Asia. Today a jar costs a few dollars; in the 1400s, the same pepper passed through many hands before it reached Europe.

Good to know

• Spices reached Europe through a chain of Asian, Arab and Persian merchants and, in the Mediterranean, mostly through Venice (buying in Mamluk Egypt and Syria), with cost added at each step.
• The popular idea that the Ottoman capture of Constantinople in 1453 "blocked" the spice route is an oversimplification: trade continued, mostly through Egypt, so this lesson doesn't use it.
• Portugal's exploration of Africa began long before 1498; Dias rounded the Cape of Good Hope in 1488.
• Vasco da Gama reached India in 1498, after Columbus's 1492 voyage. The video shows the two routes by idea, not by date.
• Columbus's voyage was paid for mainly by the Spanish crown (Ferdinand and Isabella), with help from private backers.
• "Shut out" is simplified: Genoese and other merchants also traded in spices. "Gold, God and glory" is a teaching shorthand; motives were mixed.

For AP US History learners

This is AP US History Period 1 (1491-1607): know that European exploration was driven by the search for new sources of wealth and trade routes to Asia, along with competition for power and the spread of Christianity.