Text books call the 1500's and 1600's the age of exploration. Countries across the world competed to claim new lands. Explorers made their reputations finding territory they could claim for the country that paid them.

Moving people and goods to these countries, often forcibly, required maps to guide the travel. It also requires watches to keep sufficiently accurate time to know the latitude for navigation. It took hundreds of years of exploration and invention to create accurate maps, watches and navigational information.