ABSTRACT
Technological advances, including Portuguese perfection of the astrolabe and compass, greatly assisted Portuguese pilots in the fourteenth century. Thus, by the early fifteenth century, Portugal was a strong, independent kingdom under the rule of King John the Great and managed to remain independent from the surrounding Spanish kingdoms. The Italians, Spanish, and Portuguese were the principal sea-faring southern Europeans in the fifteenth century, but the Portuguese clearly led the way. The Portuguese sailed to Madeira and the Azores Islands, and from there to Africa in search of riches; with the support of the papacy, they laid claim to a large portion of West Africa, including Ghana, Benin, Gabon, and Mali. Christian Europe panicked when Constantinople fell to the forces of Islam in 1453. That event pushed Europeans to search for a westward sea route to the fabled riches of the East.
