spaniards and portuguese were pioneer world explorers for sure. even columbus, an italian, had to ask the royal court in spain for funds, ships and crew to sail to america. dutch first then english followed their trailblazing after realizing there were much to be had by monopolizing the exotic eroctic supply chain from asia. all these exploration were dreamed up because of greedy central asian, turk, persian, arab, ah neh, and middle eastern middlemen sitting fat and powerful on the silk road, especially after the ottoman empire took over the muslim world from central asia to north africa and waged centuries of war with europe.