Many nations throughout the 1400s-1700s such as the Portuguese, Spanish, English,

French and the Dutch engaged in much maritime exploration throughout the world, particularly
exploration of the new world and colonization of many different new nations that have just been
discovered by them.
The Portuguese were one of the most dominant forces in maritime exploration during
this time period, being the ones to colonize. At one time Portugal controlled the Azores,
Madeira, Cape Verde, and São Tomé, Principe, Cochin, Goa, Colombo, Macao, Nagasaki,
Mozambique, Angola and Brazil. Portugal had colonies all over the world, located in Africa,
Asia, South America, and India. Explorers such as Vasco de Gama helped pave the way for
colonization of these places by sailing to and finding routes to get to places such as India and
colonizing areas in the places that were found by Portugal. Portugal mainly did this for the
purposes of trading for spices, gold, agricultural products, and other resources that were
necessary to growth of their empire. These colonies that they colonized had these resources
therefore it was necessary for theri growth.
Spain was a country that had an extremely long reach and a massive impact on the
world with their colonization, making spanish one of the most spoken languages in the world
even in the present day due to the spreading of their language. Spain mainly expanded into
South America, and even North America, using conquistadors and explorers such as Pizarro
and Cortes to conquer the Inca and Aztec empires gaining a colossal amount of territory in this
relatively short period of time. Spain mainly desired to extract precious metals from the
Americas to fuel their economy and to make Spain a more powerful country.
The English, mainly Britain, was most likely the biggest colonizer of countries outside of
their own, invading all but 22 countries, and having controlled 56 sovereign countries. Many
British explorers discovered many areas in the New World, with explorers such as Christopher
Colombus, James Cook, and John Cabot discovering and allowing colonization of many new
areas such as America, New Zealand, Australia, and Newfoundland being found by these
explorers. Britain wanted more land to build housing on, as well as the natural resources found
on these lands such as metals, sugar, and tobacco that they could farm and exploit for money.
This was fueled by the mercantilist economy of Britain during the 17th and 18th centuries,
where they desired to have more imports than exports to generate wealth on a mass scale.
French exploration and colonization was large compared to the other countries that
engaged in colonization, but the French were largely successful conquering many Islands and
countries, with a total of about 72 countries being in the hands of France at one time or another.
France had colonized a large number of Islands during this period as well as some territories in
Southeast Asia, with a large chunk of Africa being French during this time, with their
involvement in the colonialization of the New World being sizable. They had explorers such as
LaSalle and Jaques Cartier help France colonize Canada and a large portion of present-day
America, as well as many others to help colonize islands where they could colonize. The main
motive for French expansion and exploration was had the desire to strip areas of their natural
resources. The French also had the desire to create posts for the fur trade, as that was a
massive part of their economy at the time and it would dramatically increase profits if they had
more territory to expand their trade.
The Dutch Empire was not nearly as big in terms of resources nor in terms of land when
compared to the other colonies during this time period but they had control some territories in
Southeast Asia, South Africa, and South America. They controlled many mines in their colonies,
mainly in Africa with the mass mining of gold. While the original intent of the Dutch was to find a
route to Southeast Asia to trade spices, they eventually colonized the Americas and involved
themselves in the fur trade along with the French. These voyages by explorers such as Abel
Tasman allowed the Dutch to expand and discover new territory, with Abel being the first person
to discover Australia as an island continent, being the first to do so.
Many different innovations during the time period of 1400-1700 such as the magnetic
compass, lateen sails, the astrolabe, large storage capability in ships, and many other marine
advancements that helped transoceanic exploration.
While many European countries expanded and explored many new areas, China,
specifically, the Ming Dynasty, refused to interact with others and isolated themselves from
Europeans. This was due to the fear of European influence on Chinese people, and as such
they not only dropped out of the age of exploration despite being a marine superpower in the
early 1400s, but also stopped trading with others. Tokugawa Japan also refused to interact with
the outside world due to similar reasons, with shoguns believing that interaction internationally
with other countries would hinder the flow of resources that they had established during that
time.