Which participant in european exploration is being described below? this country began the age of exploration. its explorers were the first europeans to journey down the western coast of africa. brazil, its colony in south america, was an important source of income.

PORTUGAL

Explanation:

The Portuguese discoveries were a series of maritime voyages and explorations carried out by the Portuguese between 1418 and 1543. The discoveries resulted in the expansion of Portugal and were an essential contribution to delineate the map of the world, driven by the Reconquista and the search for Alternative trade routes in the Mediterranean Sea. Although with antecedents in the reign of Dinis (1279) and in the expeditions to the Canary Islands of the time of Alfonso IV, it is from the conquest of Ceuta in - a place conquered with relative ease, by an expedition organized by Juan I -, when Portugal starts the national project of systematic oceanic navigation1 that will be known as «Portuguese discoveries». After the Reconquest, the spirit of conquest and Christianization of the Muslim peoples was maintained. The Portuguese then went to North Africa, from where the Mouros had come who invaded the Iberian peninsula and settled there. Portugal could not disguise its economic interest, since it was also from North Africa, where the spices came from, a genre of great value due to the effort to bring them to Europe. Advancing progressively in the Atlantic along the African coasts, they passed the Cape of Good Hope and entered the Indian Ocean driven by the demand for alternative trade routes in the Mediterranean. They arrived in India in 1498, and simultaneously explored the South Atlantic and landed on the coasts of Brazil in 1500, and sailing to the extreme of Asia, they arrived in China in 1513 and in Japan in 1543.

The expeditions continued during several reigns, from the explorations in the African coast impelled by the infant D. Henrique, son of Juan I, with the project of finding a maritime route to the India of Juan II, that culminated in the reign of Juan III, when the Portuguese Empire was established (1557).

what are local authorities doing to fix the problem

explanation:

the passage of a strict fugitive slave law