1The Geographical DiscoveryThe great luxury trade with the East.Spices and condiments especially Pepper, were much in demand in Europe to relieve the monotony of diet. From the East also came precious stones, fine textiles, rugs, and tapestries. In exchange for such products as these, Europe sent large quintiles of coarse woo1en cloth, and the raw metals tin, copper, and lead. But there remained what in modern times we should call an unfavorable balance of trade: Europe gradually drained herse1f of gold and silver to Pay for her imported luxuries.There were three main trade route from the East-（1）the central route by way of the Persian Gulf, the Tigris Valley, Bagdad, and Aleppo,（2）the southern route by way of the Red Sea, Cairo, and Alexandria, and（3）the northern route by Way of Samarkand and Bokhara to the Black Sea. All these routes involved great difficulties and risks and man transfers of cargo. Protection of Commerce. To protect their growing commerce from the attacks of robbers and pirates and from the extortions of feudal lords who demanded tolls for the right to travel, a number of the German commercial towns entered into a confederation known as the Hanseatic League. Formed in the thirteenth century, the Hanseatic League grew rapidly. At the height of its power and prestige more than seventy cities were members. The Hanseatic League maintained trading Posts or counters in the principal Baltic and North Sea Ports, made treaties providing for commercial privileges, and supported a fleet of ships for the suppression of piracy. Impulse to Exploration. The lucrative trade with the East was, in the fifteenth century, largely the monopoly of the mercantile Italian cities, especially of Venice. This monopoly arose from the superiority of Venetian sea power in the Mediterranean and from the great length of time that the Italians had been engaged in the trade. They had built up their own organizations, routes, and trading-posts and had entered into commercial treaties with the Arab and Turks. Early in the fifteenth century the Possibility of discovering an all-water ode to India began to be discussed in western Europe. Such a route would not only break the Venetian monopoly but would enable the saving of the expense of caravan transport and of the loading and unloading which the use of the old trade routes involved.Advances in the science of navigation and in increasing know1edge of geography stimulated the spirit of exploration. The mariners compass had come into general use by l450. The astrolabe for measuring latitude came into use about the same time. The amazing account of the travels of Marco Polo（c.l254-c.1324 ）, who returned to Venice in I295 after spending twenty years in the Far East and China, where he had lived at the court of Kublai, the Great Khan, stirred the imagination of educated Europe. Although fictional and full of extravagant tales, the very popular Travels of Sir John Mandeville, which appeared near the end of the fourteenth century, was probably even more influential than the factual Book of Marco Polo in stimulating interest in foreign lands. A famous passage in this latter book asserts the roundness of the earth and declares that it wou1d be possib1e to sail around the world and return to ones country. The prices of spices and other articles of the East Indian trade did not rise perceptibly as a result of the Turkish capture of Constantinople in l453. The Venetian trade was carried on for many years with little interruption. The search for a new route to the East began many years before l453 not by the 2Venetians but by the Portuguese, Spanish, and English.Rise of Portugal. The lead in oceanic exp1oration was taken by the Portuguese early in the fifteenth century Under the direction of Prince Henry the Navigator（1394-l460）systematic exploration of the west coast of Africa and the adjacent At1antic was carried out. Prince Henry attracted a group of learned men, adventurous mariners and astronomers, to his court at Sagres, and throughout his lifetime Portugal was the acknowledged center of geographic and maritime science. Prince Henrys captains discovered the Azores and Cape Verde Islands and pushed down the coast of Africa to the Gulf of Guinea. Henry believed that it should be possible to sail around Africa, and to the end of his life he was pushing expeditions to achieve this exploit. Near1y thirty years after Prince Henrys death the southernmost Point of Africa was finally reached by the Portuguese Captain Bartholomew Diaz（1486 ）. Twelve years 1ater Prince Henrys dream was realized by Vasco da Gama, who sailed around the Cape of Good Hope, up the east coast of Africa, and across the Arabian Sea to India. By this voyage Da Gama destroyed at a blow the centuries old preeminence of Venice in the Eastern trade and raised his country for a time to the Position of foremost coeternal Power in Europe.Spain and the Discovery of America. In the meantime Spain had entered th