The title of 'Overseas Expansion' has been awarded to that historical phenomenon that took place in the 15th and 16th centuries at the hands of Europe. Overseas expansion was none other than what allowed two worlds as dissimilar and distant from each other as Europe and America to meet for the first time in history. The name has been given to this period of time since it was the moment of greatest European advance on the seas and oceans of the planet with economic and military objectives.
The overseas expansion had its causes or origins in the blockade that the Arabs carried out at the end of the Middle Ages in the city of Constantinople. This blockade meant for Europeans the loss of contact with all eastern markets, both those in the Middle East and the Far East. In this way, the European capacity and the desire to continue growing economically was what led, first the Portuguese and then the Spanish, to venture into the oceans in search of a new route of arrival to those distant lands. However, along the way, they ended up getting to know the continents of Africa (of which they only knew the north) and America.
From the moment America was finally reached (in 1492 at the hands of Christopher Columbus, who represented the Spanish Crown), the overseas expansion of Europe accelerated in an incredible way. Thus, most of the Western European nations began a wild search for new territories: Spain, Portugal, Italian cities, England, Holland, France and many more. This resulted in the conquest and colonization of a large part of the planet, especially the American continent, which was divided into European hands without respecting the previous existence of native civilizations.
Finally, it can be said that this overseas expansion was generated again at the end of the 19th century but then under the name of imperialism. From that moment, European man finished colonizing the territories of the planet over which he had no political power and which he only limited himself to economically exploiting, such as almost the entire African continent, Australia and some regions of Southeast Asia.
