By the late 15th century Europe was in the midst of the Renaissance, the cultural rebirth that had followed the Middle Ages. This same period was also the Age of Encounter, a time when explorers from Italy, Spain, Portugal, and England set out to find easier trade routes to China and India. This time of exploration was led by such navigators as Christopher Columbus, John Cabot, Vasco de Gama, Amerigo Vespucci, Ferdinand Magellan, and Francis Drake. These men believed they were the first Europeans to encounter the New World, though historians have since shown that the Vikings reached the continent nearly 500 years earlier. These voyages during the Age of Encounter produced contact with native peoples that would prove to have devastating effects on these populations, and connected various countries in ways that would transform the world.