PortugalTheFirst

 The Portuguese were the first to begin the Age of Exploration. Bartholemeu Dias was the first Portuguese man to sail around the southernmost tip of Africa and begin trade setting up trade colonies on the southern west coast of Africa. He was killed in a bloody conflict with native Africans. Pedro Cabral was the first man to discover the South Americas and set up spice trade colonies. Another explorer was Vasco de Gama who was the first man to discover India, Calicut. When he had filled his cargo with spices he returned to Portugal where he made a lot of profit. He returned many times to India for spices. Portugal set up spice trades, merchant colonies in India, Africa, and South America and along the Spice Islands. The Portuguese were mostly in the exploratory race for the spices and the gold that came with the spice trade. Also, the Portuguese, in their voyages for spices and exploration, ran into conflicts with the Turkish, Indians and certain other Muslim fleets. Though, the Portuguese in all their supremacy in spice trade easily controlled the waters of the Indian Ocean to defend their new found spice empire. The Portuguese after a while of trading spices with local merchants soon had ruled the seas of merchant spice trade. media type="youtube" key="jL2z2VCg5fw" width="425" height="350" align="center"

This Video dicusses the Portuguese role in discovering Africa, South America and India and their role in the trading of spices. Only watch up to around 2:30 minutes.