<P> European colonization of both Eastern and Western Hemispheres has its roots in Portuguese exploration . There were financial and religious motives behind this exploration . By finding the source of the lucrative spice trade, the Portuguese could reap its profits for themselves . They would also be able to probe the existence of the fabled Christian kingdom of Prester John, with an eye to encircling the Islamic Ottoman Empire, itself gaining territories and colonies in Eastern Europe . The first foothold outside of Europe was gained with the conquest of Ceuta in 1415 . During the 15th century, Portuguese sailors discovered the Atlantic islands of Madeira, Azores, and Cape Verde, which were duly populated, and pressed progressively further along the west African coast until Bartolomeu Dias demonstrated it was possible to sail around Africa by rounding the Cape of Good Hope in 1488, paving the way for Vasco da Gama to reach India in 1498 . </P> <P> Portuguese successes led to Spanish financing of a mission by Christopher Columbus in 1492 to explore an alternative route to Asia, by sailing west . When Columbus eventually made landfall in the Caribbean Antilles he believed he had reached the coast of India, and that the people he encountered there were Indians with red skin . This is why Native Americans have been called Indians or red - Indians . In truth, Columbus had arrived on a continent that was new to the Europeans, the Americas . </P> <P> After Columbus' first trips, competing Spanish and Portuguese claims to new territories and sea routes were solved with the Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494, which divided the world outside of Europe in two areas of trade an exploration, between the Iberian kingdoms of Castile and Portugal along a north - south meridian, 370 leagues west of Cape Verde . According to this international agreement, the larger part of the Americas and the Pacific Ocean were open to Spanish exploration and colonization, while Africa, the Indian Ocean and most of Asia were assigned to Portugal . </P> <P> The boundaries specified by the Treaty of Tordesillas were put to the test in 1521 when Ferdinand Magellan, sailing for the Spanish Crown became the first European to cross the Pacific Ocean, reaching Guam and the Philippines, parts of which the Portuguese had already explored, sailing from the Indian Ocean . The two by now global empires, which had set out from opposing directions, had finally met on the other side of the world . The conflicts that arose between both powers were finally solved with the Treaty of Zaragoza in 1529, which defined the areas of Spanish and Portuguese influence in Asia, establishing the anti meridian, or line of demarcation on the other side of the world . </P>

What countries or areas did portugal contact colonize or establish posts in