Question: why were the european powers interested in getting involved in the indian ocean trade routes

title: Spice trade
text: It was during this time that Spanish and Portuguese explorers first set foot on the New World . Christopher Columbus was the first to do so in 1492 while sailing westward across the Atlantic Ocean on an expedition to the indies . Instead of reaching Asia , Colombus discovered the Americas , landing on an island in what is now the Bahamas . Believing to have in fact reached India , the crew named the natives `` Indians '' , a name which has continued in use to this day , to describe the indigenous peoples of the Americas . Just eight years later in 1500 , the Portuguese navigator , Pedro Álvares Cabral while attempting to reproduce Vasco da Gama 's Atlantic route to the Cape and India was blown westwards to what is today Brazil . After taking possession of the new land , Cabral resumed his voyage across the Atlantic to the southern tip of Africa and India , finally arriving there in September 1500 -- opening for the first time a route from the New World to Asia -- and returning to Portugal by 1501 .