The kingdom of Portugal   15th century was one of the first European powers to begin building a colonial empire. The Portuguese Renaissance was a period of exploration, during which Portuguese sailors discovered several Atlantic archipelagos like the Azores, Madeira, or Cape Verde, explored and colonized the African coast, discovered an eastern route to India that rounded the Cape of Good Hope, discovered Brazil, explored the Indian Ocean and established trading routes throughout most of southern Asia, and sent the first direct European maritime trade and diplomatic missions to Ming China and  to Japan.