Passion for Spice

The search for spice was the main motivation for European explorers to search for a route to the East, whether by traveling westward through the Atlantic or around Africa's Cape of Good Hope.

The Portuguese obtained cloves from the Moluccas (Maluku Islands), mace and nutmeg from the Banda Islands, cinnamon from Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and pepper from the Malabar coast of India.

Meat in Europe was rarely fresh, and spices improved the flavor. For a long time, Europeans had been very enthusiastic about adding spice to their meat.

When Alaric the Goth sacked Rome in AD 410, he discovered a storehouse with 5000 pounds of pepper.

Even the poorest European households of the Middle Ages used spices like garlic, bay leaves, marjoram, thyme, aniseed and coriander.