The Caravel-Led Navigation Revolution

Timeline

1. 1490–1494Southern Portuguese shipyards · AlgarveThe caravel, developed in the second half of the 15th century, already featured a mix of lateen and square sails and a light, agile hull. In the early 1490s Portuguese shipyards continued adjusting tonnage and rigging to ocean-going requirements, making the type suitable for west African trade and transoceanic reconnaissance.
2. 1492–1497Atlantic · North AtlanticIn the 1490s Portugal continued using the caravel to maintain west African routes while accumulating charts, trade-wind, and provisioning experience for longer transoceanic voyages. Spain likewise employed similar light sailing vessels in the Canary Islands and elsewhere, intensifying Iberian maritime technological competition.
3. 1497–1499Lisbon · LisbonBy the late 1490s the mixed-fleet model of caravels and larger naus had matured, providing replicable organizational and shipbuilding experience for da Gama's 1497 rounding of the Cape of Good Hope and the subsequent global route expansion; the logistics system of the early modern maritime empire took shape accordingly.