The Kingdom of Portugal, like many of the other European kingdoms, had long been looking for new trading routes that allowed them to avoid North Africa, the only places of that continent known being Libya and Egypt, that were under the control of the kingdoms of Venice and Florence and which were very costly. Under the leadership of Henry the Navigator, prince of Portugal and given the extensive knowledge that the Portuguese had acquired through being a seafaring nation, the Portuguese set out to find a new way towards India and competed with other nations for footholds, especially Castille. In various expeditions that began in the 1400s, and even after the death of Prince Henry the Navigator, the Portuguese reached by land and sea several territories of Africa, including lands in Senegal, Cape Verde and Sierra Leone in 1446. The Portuguese established port cities wherever their expeditions went and initiated trades of gold found in Sudan, mining and also slaves. The effect this had on African history was the discovery of its reaches beyond the northern part of the continent which had been known to Europeans since atiquity, the opening of routes for new European expeditions to take place, the discovery of unknown cultures up until that point, but also the initiation of the slavery trade, one of the darkest consequences in history.