Even before the Age of Exploration, spices were traded globally along the Silk Road, an ancient trade route connecting Europe with China. Fueled by myths of their mysterious origins and their intoxicating scents, the European craving for spices enriched merchants and led to a series of explorations to find the distant lands where they originally grew. In this sense, the struggle for the monopoly of the profitable spice trade in the 15th century was the force behind the voyages of discovery of Vasco da Gama, Christopher Columbus, and Ferdinand Magellan.Setting the Stage: The Spice Trade in the Middle AgesIndian spices in wooden trays, by enviromantic. Source: iStockIn Il Milione (The Million, commonly known as Travels of Marco Polo), an account of his 25 years in Asia, Italian merchant and traveler Marco Polo described Java as a very rich island, producing pepper, nutmeg, spikenard, galingale [galangal], cubebs, and cloves, and all the precious spices that can be found in the world. He then added that the island is visited by great numbers of ships and merchants who buy a great range of merchandise, reaping handsome profits and rich returns.Compiled at the end of the 13th century, Marco Polos book is a testament to medieval Europes craving for spices, as well as its limited geographical knowledge of the East. Indeed, while spices were the worlds first globally traded product, Europeans had only vague notions of how spices were harvested and even hazier knowledge about the regions where they grew.When the Polo family embarked on their extended travels throughout Asia, Venice held the monopoly of the European spice trade. Between the 11th and the 15th centuries, Venetian merchants and traders had easy access to Constantinople, Alexandria, Beirut, and ports on the Mediterranean and Black Seas. They then sold the spices bought in the Middle East on the European markets, where they would charge from 50 to 100 percent more for their products.Illustration from the French edition of The Adventures of Marco Polo, by Matre de Boucicaut et Matre de Mazarine, ca. 1410-1412. Source: Wikimedia Commons/BnF Gallica Digital LibraryThe Republic of Venice secured its hold on the lucrative trade with the naval war of Chioggia (1378-1381), when its forces defeated the Republic of Genoa, Venices long-time commercial rival in the Levant. The Venetians monopoly on the spice trade began to decline after the fall of Constantinople in 1453 and the emergence of a new power, the Ottoman Empire.In the following decades, as the Ottoman Turks established their supremacy in the Mediterranean Sea, the networks of European merchants in the Middle East were severely restricted. Only the Republic of Venice managed to retain some control over the spice trade. Faced with heavy tariffs and an Islamic monopoly on the traditional land routes connecting Europe with the East, several European maritime powers began looking for alternative ways to reach the spice-growing lands.By then, a number of European travelers (such as the Polos) and missionaries had already visited India for the first time in centuries and reached China and some lands east and south of China for the first time ever. These first glimpses at China and the East Indies were largely made possible by the so-called Pax Mongolica (Mongolic Peace), a period of stability (named after the Pax Romana) in Eurasia during the height of the Mongol Empire.The Catalan Atlas, a 14th-century world map attributed to Cresques Abraham, ca. 1375. Source: Wikimedia Commons/Bibliothque nationale de France, ParisIn the 13th and 14th centuries, people, ideas, and trade traveled along the Silk Road, advancing Europes geographical knowledge of India and China. While the contemporary maps used a mix of Biblical stories, Christian prophetic literature, and travel accounts to depict Asia, Europeans began to acquire more exact notions of what lay beyond the Levant, realizing that the islands south and east of China were the source of many spices.A Crave for SpicesLes Heures lusage de Rome, a medieval prayer book known as the Book of Hours, printed by Philippe Pigouchet, 14th century. Source: The NewberryIn his The Poetics of Spices, Timothy Morton remarks that yesterdays banquet ingredient becomes todays Dunkin Donuts apple-cinnamon item. Indeed, while spices were so sought after and lucrative that European powers discovered the New World in an effort to control the spice trade, today, aromas such as cinnamon and nutmeg can be cheaply bought in every supermarket. So, why did medieval Europe crave spices so much to explore the world in search of them?The most common explanation for the medieval and early modern demand for exotic aromas is that spices could effectively cover the taste of spoiled meat. Historian Paul Friedman, however, dispels this theory in his Out of the East: Spices and the Medieval Imagination, arguing that in the Middle Ages fresh meat was not all that hard for the reasonably affluent to obtain. Additionally, given the high prices of spices, trying to improve dubious meat with cloves or nutmegs would have been something like slicing Italian white truffles to liven up the taste of a fast-food cheeseburger, Friedman declares.Indeed, the 1431-1432 household accounts of the count of Oxford reveal that a whole pig cost as much as a pound of pepper, the cheapest spice in European markets. So, if the perishability of meat alone does not explain the medieval love for spices, a truer answer to the craving for pungent aromas lies in the religious, culinary, medical, and social connotations of spices. From the more than 100 medieval cookbooks surviving today, it emerges that spices were ubiquitous in the Middle Ages, with around 75 percent of their recipes calling for exotic condiments.Page from Liber receptorum medicinalium, a medical text by the English surgeon John Arderne, 15th century. Source: University of Cambridge Digital LibraryBesides the medieval penchant for strongly flavored food, the high value of spices was also due to the widespread belief in their medical properties. In particular, medieval doctors believed that spices could be effective in preventing and curing illnesses, as well as balancing the four humors (internal fluids) thought to control a persons mood and physical health.As most spices were dry, they were added to sources paired with fish or meat, foods that had a supposedly wet quality. Sugar (considered a spice in the Middle Ages) was often combined with medicinal ingredients to produce medicines known as electuaries in a variety of textures, from gummy and chewy to hard.Not only did most medieval dishes and medicines feature some kind of spice, but they also employed a wide variety of aromas. An early 14th-century commercial handbook compiled by Florentine merchant Francesco Pegolotti, La pratica della mercatura (The Practice of Commerce), listed almost 290 spices, including some with exotic-sounding names, such as dragons blood and grains of Paradise.The distant and mysterious origins of most spices contributed to their economic and social value in medieval Europe. Indeed, myths about serpents guarding the pepper trees growing in India increased not only its price on European markets but also its allure. The combination of high prices and exoticism turned spices into symbols of wealth and social prominence.The 1475 wedding banquet of George the Rich, Duke of Bavaria, and Jadwiga of Poland, for example, featured a staggering amount of spices: 386 pounds of pepper, 286 pounds of ginger, 257 pounds of saffron, 205 pounds of cinnamon, pounds of cloves, and 85 pounds of nutmeg.Portuguese Navigators & the Age of ExplorationFra Mauros world map, mid-15th century. Source: Wikimedia Commons/Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, VeniceGiven the economic and social value of spices, it is not surprising that European maritime powers sought to find alternative routes to the East when Muslim states controlled the existing trading connection, hindering Western commerce and driving up prices.The first power to embark on voyages of exploration in search of spices was Portugal. Sponsored by Prince Henry, nicknamed the Navigator by the English (although he never actually took part in any exploratory endeavors), the initial Portuguese enterprises of the Age of Discovery in Africa, in the mid-1420s, aimed to profit from the trade of gold and enslaved people rather than looking for spices.Between 1419 and 1431, Portuguese navigators explored the western coast of Africa, landing in Madeira and the Azores, where they began cultivating sugar. In the following decades, Portuguese caravels, new and lighter ships, ventured toward the southern end of the African coast, reaching as far south as Cape Verde and Sierra Leone.The mid-15th-century Portuguese exploration of the African coast proved crucial in advancing Europes geographical knowledge. In his world map, for example, Fra Mauro, a monk and cosmographer living in the Camaldolite monastery of San Michele in Isola (Venice), referenced Portuguese navigations to conclude that it was possible to circumnavigate Africa, as the continent was surrounded by water. This notion went against the prevailing belief of the time, based on Ptolemys Geography (1st century BCE), that the Indian Ocean was landlocked, thus excluding the existence of a sea route east by south to India and Cathay (present-day northern China).Vasco da Gamas Arrival in Calicut in 1498, by Roque Gameiro, ca. 1900. Source: Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal, LisbonFra Mauros intuition was confirmed about half a century later, in 1488, when Bartolomeu Dias rounded the Cape of Good Hope, the promontory at the southern end of present-day South Africa, on his return voyage to Portugal. Dias voyage was sponsored by King John (Joo) II of Portugal in his efforts to find a new sea route to the lands of spices, break Venices monopoly on the spice trade, and fight Islamic rule in North Africa.Indeed, the 15th-century quest for spices was deeply intertwined with the search for Christian allies in the East, an endeavor based on the legend of Prester John, a legendary ruler rumored to be located in India. In 1497, when Vasco da Gama circumnavigated Africa and reached Calicut on Indias west coast, he did not find Prester Johns kingdom. However, he finally disproved Ptolemys idea of a landlocked Indian Ocean and paved the way for Portugals monopoly on the spice trade.In the following decades, from their main base in Goa, the Portuguese established a series of strong posts in the East, reaching Malacca, the Moluccas, Java, and Macau. Portugal would control the spice trade until the 17th century, when the Dutch and English demolished its monopoly in the East.A New World? Christopher Columbus VoyagesPortrait of a Man, Said to be Christopher Columbus, by Sebastiano del Piombo, 1519. Source: Wikimedia Commons/Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York CityBefore King John II sent Bartolomeu Diaz to find the southern extremity of Africa, another explorer, Christopher Columbus, tried to secure the kings support for an ambitious project: reaching India by sailing west across the Atlantic Ocean. The Portuguese monarch, however, rejected his plan. The Italian-born navigator finally managed to obtain patronage for his voyage in 1492, when Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile agreed to finance his endeavor.Columbus, fueled by a mix of religious fervor and desire for prestige, sailed from Palos in Spain on August 3, 1492, with a fleet of three ships, the Nia, Pinta, and Santa Mara. Upon reaching the Canaries, he turned westward, thinking he would land on the coast of India. The Genoa-born explorer had mapped out his route based on the calculations made by Florentine mathematician and geographer Paolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli, who, in turn, used the information found in Ptolemys Geography to measure the distance between Europe and Asia.From Lisbon directly westward there are in the chart twenty-six spaces, each one of which contains 250 miles, as far as the great and noble city of Quinsai [present-day Hangzhou], as well as at Cipango and Cathay, wrote Toscanelli in a 1474 letter to the Portuguese cleric Freno Marins. Unaware of the existence of the American continent between Europe and Asia, Toscanelli underestimated the size of the globe and reduced the actual distance between the Canaries and Cipango (present-day Japan) by about one-third.The 1507 Waldseemller Map, the first document to show the lands discovered by Columbus as a New World. Source: Library of CongressOn October 12, 1492, when Columbus made landfall on the Island of San Salvador, he mistakenly believed he had finally reached the East. In 1493, after his return to Spain with a cargo of gold, spices, and prisoners, the Spanish monarchs sent Columbus on a second voyage to the Indies. A third and fourth expedition, in 1498 and 1502-1504 respectively, then followed, as the navigator explored the coast of Central America in search of a passage to the west.Christopher Columbus died in 1506, two years after his fourth and last sea voyage. It is unclear whether or not he was still convinced that he had reached Asia. By then, English explorer John Cabot and Italian navigator Amerigo Vespucci had also explored the lands discovered by Columbus: present-day North and Central America. During his 1501-1506 voyage, Vespucci finally realized these newly found lands were not part of Asia but a New World.In the 1507 world map created by Martin Waldseemller, the southern portion of the new lands was given the name America after Amerigo Vespucci himself. The Waldseemller map marked a huge leap forward in geographical knowledge: the quest for spice had led Europe to radically change its understanding of the world.Ferdinand Magellan: Circumnavigating the GlobeMap showing the entirety of Magellan and Elcanos circumnavigation of the globe between 1519 and 1522, by Semhur. Source: Penn Today, University of PennsylvaniaMore than ten years after Waldseemller compiled his revolutionary world map, Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan became the first European to achieve Columbus goal of reaching Asia by a westward course. After sailing from Spain on September 20, 1519, Magellans five-ship fleet reached the bay of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in December and began searching for a passage leading west to the Pacific Ocean.In October 1521, Magellan finally found the strait he had been seeking at approximately 5250 S. After 38 days, three of the five ships finally emerged from the narrow, tortuous, and rock-walled passage later named after Magellan. For the following 14 weeks, the remaining crew sailed across the vast extent of the ocean that Magellan later named Pacific for its calm waters.Detail of the Victoria, the only ship to survive the circumnavigation, from a 16th-century map of the Pacific Ocean by cartographer Abraham Ortelius. Source: Penn Today, University of PennsylvaniaThe exhausted and scurvy-ridden men finally made landfall on the island of Guam on March 6, 1521. Ten days later, they reached the Philippines, where Ferdinand Magellan died during a clash with local inhabitants on the nearby Mactan Island. The rest of the crew sailed on the Moluccas, thus successfully circumnavigating the globe for the first time. Of the five ships, only one, the Victoria, managed to return to Spain under the command of Juan Sebastin Elcano with a cargo full of spices.Deeming that the remaining crew would likely not survive another long voyage across the Pacific, Cano returned to Europe across the Indian Ocean and up the western coast of Africa. On September 9, 1522, 17 of the 235 who had embarked on Magellans fleet three years earlier arrived in Seville. The circumnavigation of the globe had finally demonstrated that between Asia and Europe stood a new continent.The Spice Trade After the Age of ExplorationThe Return to Amsterdam of the Second Expedition to the East Indies, by Hendrick Cornelisz Vroom, 1599. Source: Wikimedia Commons/Rijksmuseum, AmsterdamIn the decades following Magellans voyage, English, Dutch, and French explorers continued to travel to the newly discovered lands, expanding the European powers commercial empires. In 1577, English admiral Francis Drake passed through the Strait of Magellan and circumnavigated the globe, making landfall on the Moluccas in the summer of 1579. A year later, Drake returned to Plymouth Harbor with a ship full of spices. Despite Spains complaints about his conduct while in imperial waters, Queen Elizabeth I knighted him aboard his Golden Hind.In 1595, brothers Cornelis and Frederik de Houtman led the first Dutch expedition to the East Indies, aiming to establish trade relations with the Spice Islands and challenge the Portuguese monopoly on the spice trade. Three years later, another trading expedition under the command of Jacob van Neck also reached the East Indies, returning home with a cargo full of spices. These successes contributed to the foundation of the Dutch East India Company, a trading company aimed at protecting the countrys interests in the Indian Ocean. In 1600, the British had already founded their own trading company, the East India Company, to take part in the spice trade.The East Offering Its Riches to Britannia, by Spyridon Romas, 1778. Source: Wikimedia Commons/British Library, LondonBy the 17th century, the Dutch and British had successfully broken the Portuguese monopoly on the spice trade. By then, however, the craving for the aromas that had launched the Age of Exploration had already subsided in Europe as culinary tastes began to change across the continent, favoring less rich flavors. In his Larte di ben cucinare (The Art of Well Cooking, 1662), Bolognese cook Bartolomeo Stefani calls for a moderate use of spices in most dishes. Do not add spices, for when it is cooked it will be good, he recommended about making beef stew.While spices may no longer be exotic and luxury items, it is undeniable that the European desire to find a route to the spices is among the most significant forces the world has known, paving the way to colonialism.