The Spaniards and Portuguese opened maritime routes to the East Indies and colonized the Americas, later joined by the English, French, and Dutch.
Sources
- Age of Discovery (en.wikipedia.org)
- https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_posts/25356016-the-age-of-discovery (goodreads.com)
- https://graphsearch.epfl.ch/en/concept/690842 (graphsearch.epfl.ch)
- https://www.the-map-as-history.com/Portuguese-and-Spanish-empires-16th-18th-centuries (the-map-as-history.com)