The reason the Europeans came at all, and when they did, was a desire to reach India and the East Indies. The famous Silk Road went west from India and China, bringing products to Europe via the Mediterranean. In the mid-fifteenth century, the road was interdicted by the rise of an Islamic empire, the Ottomans, centered on Turkey. They first blocked the road and then dramatically increased the tax on goods passing through. The Europeans depended on the Silk Road for goods, but the Ottomans had priced those goods to painful levels.
