The Portuguese Empire existed at the same time as the Renaissance.
The Age of Discovery or the Age of Exploration from the end of the 15th century to the 18th century , was an informal and loosely defined European historical period marking the time period in which extensive overseas exploration emerged as a powerful factor in European culture and the beginning of globalization . Portuguese Empire . It existed for almost six centuries from the capture of Ceuta in 1415 to the grant of sovereignty to East Timor in 2002 . Portuguese Renaissance . Though the movement coincided with the Spanish and Italian Renaissances , the Portuguese Renaissance was largely separate from other European Renaissances and instead was incredibly important in opening Europe to the unknown and bringing a more worldly view to those European Renaissances , as at the time the Portuguese Empire spanned the globe . The Renaissance ( [ rᵻˈneɪsəns ] , [ rɛnəˈsɑːns ] ) was a period in European history , from the 14th to the 17th century , regarded as the cultural bridge between the Middle Ages and modern history .