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Home / Periods / Renaissance & Early Modern Europe / Age of Exploration

Period

Age of Exploration

c. 1400–1600 CE

The Age of Exploration describes the expansion of long-distance European maritime voyages from the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries. Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, English and French ships opened or forced routes across the Atlantic, around Africa, into the Indian Ocean and across the Pacific. The period involved navigation, trade, conquest, disease, enslavement and cultural encounter.

It mattered because it connected continents through new systems of empire, commerce and exploitation. The world economy changed, but so did local societies facing invasion, mission, slavery and extraction. Historical novels can use this setting for sailors, pilots, merchants, missionaries, interpreters, captives, Indigenous leaders and families caught in first contact.

Related people for Age of Exploration

Afonso de Albuquerque1453–1515 Ahuitzotlc. 15th century–1502 Amerigo Vespucci1454–1512 Antonio de Mendoza1490–1552 Catharina Bolnes1631–1687 Charles V1500–1558 Christopher Columbus1451–1506 Cuauhtémoc1495–1525 Cuitláhuac1476–1520 Edward IV1442–1483 Elizabeth I1533–1603 Ferdinand II of Aragon1452–1516 Ferdinand Magellanc. 1480–1521 Francisco Tenamaztledied 1556 Francis Drake1540–1596 George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence1449–1478 Hernán Cortés1485–1547 Isabella I of Castile1451–1504 Johannes Vermeer1632–1675 John Cabotc. 1450–c. 1499 John Hawkins1532–1595 John Saris1580–1643 Juan Sebastián Elcanoc. 1486–1526 Manuel I of Portugal1469–1521 Maria Thinsc. 1590s–1680 Martín Cortésc. 1522–1569 Moctezuma II1466–1520 Oliver Cromwell1599–1658 Pedro de Alvarado1486–1541 Philip II of Spain1527–1598 Pieter van Ruijven1624–1674 Tokugawa Ieyasu1543–1616 Vasco da Gamac. 1460s–1524 Walter Raleigh1552–1618 William Adams1564–1620

Series

Series about Age of Exploration (2 series)

Birds of Prey Sequence in Order

by various authors 10 books 4.4(76,119)

The extended Birds of Prey sequence follows successive Courtney generations from the Second Anglo-Dutch War and the Indian Ocean trading world through the French and Indian War, the American Revolution, the Napoleonic era and the rise of the Zulu kingdom. Its ten books connect maritime commerce, piracy, colonial…

Treasure & Vengeance in Order

by Jeffery Farnol 3 books 3.8(184)

The Treasure & Vengeance books form Farnol’s pirate cycle. In story chronology Adam Penfeather begins with the later-published prequel Adam Penfeather, which explains the early exploits that made him a hard and resourceful buccaneer. Black Bartlemy’s Treasure then introduces Martin Conisby, escaped from Spanish galley slavery and obsessed…

Books

30 Best Novels About the Age of Exploration

Non-Fiction

7 Best Non-Fiction Books About the Age of Exploration

Histories, biographies and reference works are listed separately from the historical novels above.