In 1498, the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama sailed with four ships from Europe to reach India. Because of the cold weather, the sailors could not prepare food. They went to Africa and collected all they needed and finally reached India and saw the flock of amazed citizens watching their Western ships. Europeans traded goods such as silks, fine carpets, pottery, and precious jewels from India and China. They were interested in cloves, cinnamon, coriander, and pepper that were particularly found in the East. The warfare of 1400s in Eastern Europe and Asia disabled the Europeans to travel over land. They found new trade routes to get to East Asia. Venetian explorer Marco Polo believed that Japan was 1,500 miles east of China and he exaggerated descriptions of the eastern lands such as dog-headed humans and headless people. These exaggerations were later proved wrong by the explorers. Ptolemy's worldview was divided into 360 degrees of longitude. As well, it consisted of three continents Asia, Africa, and Europe and two oceans the Indian Ocean and the Western Ocean. He also said that land covered three-fourths of earth's surface. His miscalculations, including earth's size being one-sixth smaller than its usual size, were forgotten through vast knowledge.
European rulers and explorers were desperate for money and Eastern goods. Since, in 1453, the conquest of Constantinople increased the price of the spices and goods, it put the already poor Western Europe into large devastation. They regained wealth by hiring people to hunt new wealth. The explorers not only wanted to find new land and wealth, but also wanted to spread their religion and to practice their religion in their own land. The Catholics sent converts to other places and the Protestants practiced their faith in new lands Europeans gained faith along with fame and fortune across the miles. Navigation tools such as the as