Question: what was the first european country to launch long ocean voyages of exploration
Answer: Global exploration started with the Portuguese discoveries of the Atlantic archipelagos of Madeira and the Azores , the coast of Africa , and the discovery of the sea route to India in 1498 ; and the Crown of Castile ( Spain ) the trans - Atlantic Voyages of Christopher Columbus to the Americas between 1492 and 1502 and the first circumnavigation of the globe in 1519 -- 1522 .