The Age of Reconnaissance

In The Age of Reconnaissance, J.H. Parry discusses the period in which Europe discovered the rest of the world. Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, England and the Netherlands are nations that took part of this discovery effort. The purpose is to give an outline of European exploration during the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries and how they expanded and the outcome of it all and how they later saw the world as a whole. It started with Henry the Navigator and the Portuguese voyages in the mid-fifteenth century and ended many years later when the “Reconnaissance” was done and complete. Parry discusses political, economical, and religious aspects along with oversea enterprise, and problems of the European settlement (back of book, vii).
The way to explain why the discovery began in the fifteenth century and not early is that in modern European states were trying to dominate others. Along with the Black Death during the thirteenth century that is a deadly disease tha...