Sailing west from Byzantium: Columbus and the fall of Constantinople.

In continuing with March’s theme of the age of discovery, I present to you Sean Munger’s post on the Byzantium and Christopher Columbus.

What does the fall of Constantinople have to do with the Age of Discovery? With the fall of a stable trading ally in the Eastern Mediterranean, trade along the silk road all but dried up for most of Europe. Necessity is the mother of invention. You see where this is going…