European merchants wanted to improve their profits by eliminating the middlemen and trading directly with the Orient. Portugal found a route to the Indian Ocean by sailing around Africa that enabled them to trade directly with the East; Spain's attempt to reach Asia from the West resulted instead in the their dominance of Central and South America.
English merchants and explorers sought their own sea routes to Asia via the northeast and the northwest. The first of these set sail In 1497, when John Cabot (c. 1450-c. 1500) set out to discover a Northwest Passage, similar to Christopher Columbus's quest a few years earlier. He reached Newfoundland, but believed that he had arrived in northeast Asia. (His mistake was soon corrected.) England's interest in exploration waned during the rule of Henry VIII (1491-1547), and resumed in earnest during the 1550s, thanks, ironically, to Spanish support.
Philip II of Spain (1527-1598), husband of England's Queen Mary I (1516-1558), arranged for Stephen Borough (1525-1584) to be trained in Atlantic navigation at the Spanish maritime academy at Seville, and he taught his newly acquired skills to other English sailors.
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