Land, Riches, Religion and… Pepper?
By the late 15th century, Europeans were no longer content with staying home and living an isolationist lifestyle. With vast oceans and landmasses all around them, it was time to begin the Age of Exploration. But what motivated explorers like Christopher Columbus, Marco Polo and Ferdinand Magellan to venture into regions that no map had yet documented?
At that time, explorers were looking for four primary things on behalf of their patrons – who were generally kings and queens. They wanted gold, of course, and mythical cities such as El Dorado became the talk of Western Europe. Many of them wanted to convert any natives they found along the way to Christianity. It goes without saying that they desired land. The fourth thing tends to go overlooked, however. Explorers from Portugal, Spain, France, England and other places were all looking for a water route to the orient.
The East was home to silks and other fine fabrics, along with some precious metals that would be valuable for trade. Still, the main advantage the civilizations of China and India possessed at that time was their ability to preserve food and make it taste better with exotic spices. In fact, pepper has been traded back and forth in its native India for at least 4,000 years. The next time you use a pepper mill to give a dish some zip, think about the long, storied history of the spice trade.