Chapter in Perspective

Early modern Europe emerged from its isolation and localism during the Middle Ages by conquering the world's oceans - opening direct contact and commerce with Africa and Asia and rediscovering America. Before the end of the fourteenth century, western Europeans had relied on the mariners and merchants of the Muslim world for their access to the trade and technology of Africa and Asia. But during the fifteenth century, western Europeans mastered the sea, carved out new sea routes to Africa and Asia, and laid claim to the Americas. The results of those efforts at exploration and discovery transformed western Europe from a backward society into a major world power.