The 16th century positioned Western Europe in a difficult predicament, yearning for new lands and reliable trade routes to the East, but facing obstruction from Constantinople, which flatly rejected access through its lands, and perpetual danger from the piracy and raiding emanating from the Sicilian Emirate in the Mediterranean. This forced the Western European kingdoms to rely entirely on the Atlantic Ocean, where the Sultanate of Madjrit exercised near-absolute control over the southwestern passage. Due to the formidable nature of the Madjriti fleet, navigating south of Iberia required entering a Madjriti port and paying a tax, as the Islamic state effectively instituted a blockade south of France. These required payments were viewed by Europeans as unjust, as the taxes applied not only to the goods they carried but also to the number of men on the ship, which severely hampered those hoping to mitigate costs by including African slaves. After gaining approval and paying the requisite taxes, European fleets were routinely shadowed by a Madjriti fleet to ensure compliance with designated routes, and if any vessel strayed too close to a Madjriti coastal port in West Africa, it was subject to a search by officials who cataloged its contents, sometimes taking sailors as "tribute" or levying further taxes. This extensive surveillance was enforced because Madjrit was determined to maintain its indomitable monopoly over the flow of gold, ivory, and slaves originating from the African continent, fearful that its European rivals might establish their own influence in the region.

Though the Madjriti presence extended only so far south along the African coast, allowing European fleets to eventually escape their direct control, European hopes for independent trade routes remained alive only by the belief that Madjrit had not yet found a direct route past the Cape to the Indies. However, this denial was completely invalidated around 1530 when European courts received conclusive information regarding regular Madjriti voyages to the Indies, bypassing intermediaries and securing spices and goods directly. This devastating revelation compelled many Europeans to accept that the "Andalusians" would possess a monopoly over the Indies trade indefinitely, though some were not content to accept this state of affairs.