Long-range ocean navigation went hand-in-hand with European innovation from the time of the Roman Empire. Innovations in cartography and astronomical observations aided the Roman expansion of trade routes in Asia and Africa. For example, geographer Claudius Ptolemy created an atlas called the Geography, for the first time using lines of latitude and longitude to specifically locate Roman navigation routes and trading entrepôts as far east as China.

When the Roman Empire ended in 476 CE, so too did European advancement in geography and navigation. The European interest in long-distance navigation was only reawakened in the 1400s with the slow choking of the overland Silk Routes that had for centuries connected Europe to the riches of Asia. With travel becoming perilous due to the disintegration of the Mongolian Empire and the order it had imposed along the trade routes, merchants now needed a way to reach Asia by sea. Explorers flying the Portuguese flag laboriously clawed their way south and east around Africa to reach the Indian Ocean. Christopher Columbus, sailing under the Spanish flag (and under a delusion about the true size of the Earth—it was much bigger than he guessed), took the novel approach of sailing west to reach Asia. He landed in the Americas instead. Other nations quickly followed suite. By 1500, the contest to create empires and dominate oceanic trade routes had begun.

As these long-range ocean voyages began to take form, the tools required for accurate navigation also evolved.