Thus, according to Colombus, India was about 4,000 km west of Spain as opposed to 16,000 km in reality. This was an outcome of a cartographic error overestimating the size of the Eurasian landmass and thinking that the earth’s circumference was about 25% smaller. Christopher Columbus, funded by the Spanish Crown (the expedition’s cost was estimated to be the equivalent of one million dollars in today’s money), was looking for a western route to Asia, but stumbled upon the Americas (in the Bahamas, Cuba, and Hispaniola) in 1492, believing to have reached India. The process started in the early 15th century with the discovery of Atlantic islands off the coast of Africa, such as Madeira, the Azores, and the Canaries, which served as stepping stones for further explorations: Using caravels, the main driver was to find a maritime route to Asia (China/India), which could be done either by sailing east or west from Europe. Early European maritime expeditions in the late 15th and early 16th centuries were mainly the initiative of Portugal and Spain and came to be known as the Age of Discovery.
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