The overseas expansion started in the 1400s with the Renaissance.  The Renaissance started with the rebirth of Italy.  Renaissance technically means rebirth, and it just so happened to start in Italy.  The leader at this time were the Medici, and the were in control of Italy during this time.  Everyone was trading with everyone.  Countries wanted to get food, gold, incense, and goods from each other, and this was known as the European overseas expansion.  When countries were trading with other countries for things that they needed to help their own country be the dominating country, the other countries started to lose.  During this time, Europe was a dominating country, because they had everything that the other countries needed.  Italy took a lot from Europe, because Italy was going broke.  They no longer had the things/supplies that they needed in order for them to survive.  Europe also did a lot of trading with England during this time as well.  England was looking for gold, and that is one of the many supplies that Europe had for them.
    Even still through the 16th century Europe was trading goods with other countries.  They would take mostly boats to trade the goods, since their was no other way to do it.  If Italy wanted goods from Europe, they would take one of their boats filled with the goods that Europe wanted in return, and they would take their boat over to Europe and unpack all of the goods that Europe wanted, and then they would fill up their boat with the goods that they themselves wanted and drive the boat (or sometimes boats) back to Italy and everyone would be happy and content with their new goods.  Then each of the countries would use their new good.  Then each of the countries would use their new goods to try and beat out each of the other countries until someone won, and someone lost.  This was fair trading so each country got what they wanted from who they wanted to help them be the best country.  This was the overseas expansion.


Another offering, which seems to include Spain as an afterthought.  Make sure to pronounce their misspelling of Genoese as Jenny-Os, like the Turkey.

    Portugal has a long sea side, where they do their trading with.  With the sea side, they are able to trade to other countries that are located across the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean.  The trading has helped Portugal expand as a country.  Portugal also went on an exploration to try and find spices.  They ended up finding some in India.  On their search for spices, they came across an unknown territory, which became the Indian Ocean.  Spain also looked for spices in an exploration, but they went to Africa and had no luck with that.
    With the trading overseas, European countries became very popular and population grew tremendously.  People traded with gold and silver.  The Geneose [sic] traded to the eastern countries, but soon had to change that.  When the Ottoman Empire grew, the Geneose had to trade to the western countries, such as Spain and Portugal, instead of their eastern trade.  The Portugal Royal Policy really favored the trade.  It made the country wealthy and popular.  Other countries wanted to do more trade with Portugal.
    In the late 1590s, actually in 1596, Spain had finally decided that they needed more than just trade in their country.  Spain became determined to have domestic stores open up.  Because the trading became so popular, shops, stores, and markets had shut down.  Businesses could not make it.  Once they realized that they needed businesses and not just trade, everything worked out well for the country who was going through a financial crisis.
    The trading of spices became very popular and countries' merchants were trading with Portugal for spices, who originally got the spices from India.