Beginning in the early 1400s, a large series of European voyages is seen that helped to charter the entire world. In order to undertake these long, expensive voyages wealthy private investors as well as entire governments financed them. The goal of these investments was to create a large market in which they believed they would profit. There were three main reasons for beginning of the Age of Exploration in Europe. The first reason was Portugal’s need for natural resources.
Portugal was the first country that sent out voyagers in search of new waters and new land. Portugal was one of the poorer countries of Europe and the land was becoming increasingly unsuitable for the cultivation of crops that would sustain its population. In an attempt to find fresh natural resources, Portuguese explorers set out. Once they discovered the Canary and Azores islands, investors from Italy began to finance more Portuguese expeditions after finding that these Atlantic islands could provide sugar to the European countries that had great use for the luxury.
After the collapse of the Silk Roads, a series of trading routes that spread from Italy to Asia, where Europeans traded for Chinese silks and spices, trading became very expensive. Europeans would have to go through the merchants of the Turkish Empire, who were used as middlemen. Because the Europeans had to use Turkish middlemen, the cost of trading with Asia increased by a large margin with the increase of the demand for these products. The second reason Europeans began exploration voyages was an attempt to find an alternate route to Asia and to increase trade with other countries. Europeans traded with African for gold and ivory as well as for Chinese ginger and other spices.
In an attempt to find an alternate route to China, Christopher Columbus proposed that he could sail westward to reach Asia (it was common knowledge well before that time that the Earth was not flat). Though a western route to Asia was entirely probably, the research of Columbus drastically underestimated the size of the globe. Columbus returned from his voyage to the West Indies and reported that he had reached Asia despite failing to return with the gold he had set out for. His voyage ignited fervor among explorers who would follow along his same path. Though he failed to reach Asia, his reaching new land was less costly than that of his predecessors. Ferdinand Magellan and James Cook attempted to go around the Cape of Good Hope at the southern most point of the African continent. They succeeded, though at high costs financially and morally.
The last reason European explorers set out for new land was a missionary effort. As taught by European churches, Christianity was thought to be, like Islam, inherently a missionary religion. This called for the religious duty of many Christians to spread Christianity by any means necessary, which in many cases such as the Crusade in Palestine was committed by violence. Europeans saw natives of new lands as seeds of opportunity to Western Europeans to spread their faith. These three combined reasons led to an exploratory movement that led to the discovery of new trade routes, including the discovery of North and South America.
Sources:
Traditions And Encounters – Vol. 1 by Jerry Bentley, Herbert Ziegler, and Heather Streets
College Level Lecture
