Well, there was a lot of stories about new lands found at the East, and probably some ships (cod fishermen, for example) "rediscovered" those lands from time to time... But there wheren't many incentives to colonize those places nor the metropolis had the capacity to obtain resources of them, so actually nobody cared. Only when the sailing tech was advanced enough to reach the richer places of America and obtain a return of the inversion, as well as with the European political situation allowed it (strong centralised states, end of "Reconquista" for both Spain and Portugal, Turk power diminishing the benefits of the traditional Silk Road to the East) the "discovery" of America and the maritime route to Asia could have any relevance.

There is no hope for humanity. If a movie where mother and daughter are gangraped by thugs is made and nominated for golden globes and oscars. For years I thought that directors and all people involved should be put in jail but then I realized that is how humanity is and that is how it will cease to exist one day.

That was one of my points. The other is, that if you count in political/financial elite, you'll notice that unequality have decreased. Also, the number of slaves, as far as I know, have decreased in the last 200 years, so I'd guess this is also counted towards increasing equality. The people who usually talk about "increased unequality", mean that instead of everyone doing better, everyone should be doing like shit, because otherwise you can't be equal and someone will always have more of "something" than someone else.