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The Fall of Constantinople & the Age of Exploration 

We often hear about the Fall of Constantinople, when we hear about it at all, as the moment when the Roman era finally ended and the Renaissance began. As Greek scholars fled the Islamic invasion of the last bastion of both Christianity and Classical culture, they brought with them to Europe a revival of Greco-Roman ways of thinking. However, the influx of Greek scholarship was not the only gift brought by those fleeing Islamic persecution. 

After Constantinople was renamed, and her churches profaned, Islam also closed her once thriving ports to Christian traders. As the final stop along an enormous trade route, remembered today as the Silk Road, Constantinople  had connected Europe with Asia and the Middle East. Without her ports, Europe's access to Asia was blocked. 

Europe's taste for Asian trade goods, however, was undiminished. 

On the other side of Europe, Spain, like Constantinople, had been occupied by Islamic armies, starting in the 700s. By the late 1400s however, Spain had grown increasingly powerful, and with the strong leadership of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, the last occupied part of Spain was finally retaken on January 2, 1492. 

For two years, a Genoese sailor, named Christopher Columbus had been petitioning the Spanish monarchs to underwrite his search for a sea route to Asia. Spain's victory left Ferdinand and Isabella with little money, but free from the threat of imminent war. After some disagreement, the couple decided to support the journey, and as a result two battles between Europe and Islam inadvertently led to the European re-discovery of America.


Try listening to a couple of Spanish tunes from the age of exploration. Two Spanish Songs

Check out this documentary on the Americas before the arrival of Columbus. America Before Columbus

Important Terms: 
1. The Age of Exploration: A period in the 15th and 16th centuries, during which European explorers and merchants first sought to discover new resources and territories in Africa, Asia, and the Americas. 
2. The Fall of Constantinople: The capture, on May 29, 1453, of the capital of the Byzantine Empire, by forces loyal to the Ottoman Turks. 
3. The Reconquista: The Spanish struggle against Islamic occupation.