The geopolitical consequences of the collapse of Byzantium were colossal. The Ottoman Empire emerged as a powerful global power, blocking traditional trade routes to the East for European merchants and imposing enormous tariffs. Christian Europe found itself cut off from Indian spices and Chinese silk. This forced European maritime powers, primarily Spain and Portugal, to actively search for alternative transoceanic routes to India, leading to the Age of Discovery and Columbus’s discovery of America in 1492.