Like a modern entrepreneur, fifteenth-century explorer, Christopher Columbus, raised capital for an expedition to discover a western passage to Asia. The fall of Constantinople in 1453 placed control of the land routes to the lucrative Asian spice trade in Ottoman-Turk hands. Columbus first proposed the Atlantic Ocean route to Joao II of Portugal in 1485.

Joao had committed to sail around Africa, and when Bartolomeu Diaz, rounded the Cape of Good Hope in 1488, Portugal had their alternative access to the Indies. The Treaty of Alcacovas (1479) blocked Spain from following Portugal’s African path to Asia. Columbus’s proposal represented Spain’s chance to gain direct access to the spice trade and eliminate Portugal’s advantage.