Under the sponsorship of Prince Henry the Navigator, Portugal took the lead in
the 1400's. Portuguese sea captains made ever-lengthening voyages along the western coast of Africa. Bartholomew Diaz first saw the cliffs of the Cape of Good Hope at Africa's southern tip in 1488. In 1497-98 Vasco da Gama rounded the Cape and reached India by sea. He brought back a cargo of spices that netted a
huge profit. Portugal occupied key cities on the sea lanes between China and the Red Sea. Its wealth became the envy of Western Europe.

Others before Vasco da Gama had planned new sea routes to the Orient, and some had guessed that such a route might be found by sailing west. Few men could agree on how far west Asia lay from Europe by sea, and no one dreamed that the
American continents stood in the way.