From Venice to the open ocean: spices and the Age of Exploration

Today you can buy a jar of pepper for a few dollars. Five hundred years ago in Europe, pepper, cloves and nutmeg were so costly that people kept them locked away.

Venice, a city of traders

Venice is built on more than 100 small islands in a lagoon in northern Italy. Its merchants bought spices and silk in ports such as Alexandria and Constantinople, then shipped them into Europe at a huge profit. The city built its own shipyard and navy to protect its trade.

Why look for a new way?

In 1453 the Ottoman Empire captured Constantinople. Spices still reached Europe, but through traders who each took a share, so prices stayed very high. Kingdoms on the Atlantic coast, such as Portugal and Spain, wanted to buy spices straight from Asia by sea.

Not the first ocean voyagers

Chinese admiral Zheng He had already led huge fleets across the Indian Ocean between 1405 and 1433. And Pacific navigators had crossed the largest ocean on Earth long before, reading stars, swells and birds to settle islands including Aotearoa.

Trading companies

Soon, trading companies from the Netherlands and Britain sent armed ships to control the spice islands. In 1642 the Dutch East India Company sent Abel Tasman to look for new lands to trade with. He reached Mohua (Golden Bay), where Ngāti Tūmatakōkiri met his ships and four of his crew were killed in a clash. Tasman left without landing, but his voyage put Aotearoa on European maps.