ABSTRACT
The Age of Exploration is often seen as the story of Europeans moving out into the Atlantic World, with Columbus “discovering” the Americas and initiating contact with Native Americans. However, the story is a bit more complex, and the Age of Exploration more properly includes Chinese, African, and European movements in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans along the coast of India and Africa, as well as into the Caribbean and the Americas. Chinese ships carried Tang and Song Dynasty diplomats and traders, facilitating cultural exchange, including the spread of Islam, between the peoples around the Indian Ocean. In the early 15th century, large Chinese fleets undertook what came to be known as the “Ming Treasure Voyages.” News and rumors of Emperor Musa I of Mali’s pilgrimage to Mecca across Africa excited European dreams of wealth there, but winds and ocean currents generally pressed the small vessels back to the coast.
