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Spain’s rivalry with other European nations in the 15^th century is what brought upon their discovery of the New Worlds, as well as bringing them the opportunity to exploit the Americas. Overseas trade had not been available until the 15^th century because of the lack of marine technology that could withstand any body of water larger than the Mediterranean, but when the Ottomans started to monopolize Mediterranean trade, the technology was of want, and was found. The first time that the oceans were used as a trade route was after Prince Henry the Navigator explored the African coast, leading to Portuguese exportation of gold from Guinea. With their new gold trade, Portugal quickly became the financial center of Europe. By the brink of the 16^th century, the Portuguese were using a trade route discovered by Bartholomew Dias and Vasco da Gama around the Cape of Good Hope to get very valuable spices from India. Portugal had established an incredible dominance over the coast of Africa and the Indian Ocean by the 1500s, leaving Spain to collect their thoughts. And the Spanish were thinking about a way to beat the Portuguese at their own game, to find a quicker route to the Indies and to exploit it. So when a Genoese merchant named Christopher Columbus presented the idea of sailing west to get to the Indies, the Spanish monarchy jumped on it. However when Columbus discovered the Americas instead, Spain had still been led to the answer to their rivalry, an entire New World to discover, exploit, and devastate so as to appease their own nation’s rivalry.