From the fact that several Cretan townships passed for colonies of Tegea, it may be inferred that this city had oversea connexions in prehistoric days.
Into the Cameroon country Saker and his colleagues introduced the elements of civilization, and with the help of British men-of-war the oversea slave trade was finally stopped (c. 1875).
Malocello's enterprise not only marks the beginning of the oversea expansion of western Europe in exploration, conquest and colonization (after the age of Scandinavian world-roving had passed); it is also probably not unconnected with the great Genoese venture of 1291 (in search of a waterway to India, which soon follows), with which this attempt at Canarian discovery and dominion has been by some unjustifiably identified.
A period of expansion oversea began in the same reign, with the capture of Ceuta in Morocco.
In Germany progress was hindered by the political conditions of the country under the old Confederation; for the Hanse cities, which practically monopolized the oversea trade, lacked the means to establish a consular system on the French model.