Name and describe TWO elements that allowed the kingdoms of Portugal and Spain to be the pioneers in the process of expansion of Europe from the XV and XVI centuries

- October 12th, 1492: Coulumbus arrived to America

- 1488: Bartolomeu Diaz arrived to the Cape of Good Hope in the south of Africa.

Explanation:

In October 12th, 1492 Spain discovered America, by Columbus. He thought, he arrived to India, in the Asian continent but he did not notice, that a new land was discovered. This discovery was the beginning of the conquest of the New World, since to trade with India, China, even Japan, Spain and Portugal had to find an alternative trade route because  the Turks and Ottomans blocked the roads that went to the east of Europe. In order to determine the riches of America, a series of trips followed each other from Spain that ended in the conquest of Mexico by Hernan Cortes (1520) and the conquest of Peru (1532), by Francisco Pizarro. In addition, Portugal discovered Brazil in 1500, with the navigator Cabral Pedro. On the other hand, and seeing that the Spanish sailors began to march towards the Atlantic Ocean, Portugal decided to look for an alternative route bordering the coasts of Africa to reach India, an event that finally occurred in 1488 by Bartolomeu Dias when he arrived to the Cape of Good Hope.

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