Scholars, intellectuals, and exploration

time of ignorance and superstition

Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash

Theologians such as John Duns Scotus and William of Ockham had, during the Later Middle Ages, led a reaction against intellectualist scholasticism, objecting to the application of reason to faith.

These reactions undermined the prevailing Platonic idea of universals. Ockham’s insistence that reason operates independently of faith allowed science to be separated from theology and philosophy.

In the early 15th century, the countries of the Iberian Peninsula began to sponsor exploration beyond the boundaries of Europe.

Prince Henry the Navigator of Portugal sent expeditions that discovered the Canary Islands, the Azores, and Cape Verde during his lifetime.

After his death, exploration continued. Bartholomew Dias went around the Cape of Good Hope in 1486, and Vasco da Gama sailed around Africa to India in 1498.

The combined Spanish monarchies of Castile and Aragon sponsored the voyage of exploration by Christopher Columbus in 1492, which discovered the Americas.

The English crown under Henry VII sponsored the voyage of John Cabot in 1497, which landed on Cape Breton Island (in Nova Scotia, opening up Canada).