History of Western civilization Genovese born mariner, Christopher Columbus set out under the auspices of the Crown of Castile (Spain) to seek an oversea route to the East Indies via the Atlantic Ocean. Rather than Asia, Columbus landed in the Bahamas, in the Caribbean. Spanish colonization followed and Europe established Western Civilization in the Americas. The Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama led the first sailing expedition directly from Europe to India in 1497-1499, by the Atlantic and Indian oceans, opening up the possibility of trade with the East other than via perilous overland routes like the Silk Road. Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese explorer working
Immigration to Portugal been able to prove that they are descended from Jews expelled from Portugal in 1497, have acquired Portuguese citizenship. Immigration to Portugal As of 2007 Portugal had 10,617,575 inhabitants of whom 332,137, or 3.13%, were legal immigrants (51,7% female, 48,3% male). Brazilians, Ukrainians, Moldovans, Romanians and Russians, Asians as well as Africans are the immigrants in the country. Portugal, long a country of emigration, has now become a country of net immigration, and not just from the last Portuguese overseas territories in India (until 1961), Africa (until 1975), and Far East Asia (until 1999). Since the 1990s, along with a