The age of exploration lasted from about 1418 to 1620 in the 15th century. In this period, many European explorers made voyages that changed world’s history. Also, trade with the East was difficult and expensive as well. The Muslims and Italians controlled the flow of trade.
“Up to the 1400s, European trade with Asian cultures was centered in the Mediterranean Sea and controlled by Muslim merchants who had geographic access to the Orient. The demand for the luxury goods from the Orient made Europeans eager to develop an all water route to Asia that would eliminate their dependence on Muslim merchants.”
This was a problem for Europe because the Muslim rulers sometimes would close the trade routes from Asia to Europe. The Europeans did not want the Muslims and Italians to control the trade, so they decided to find a sea route to Asia.
One major reason for the voyages that the European explorers made was to find sea routes that went to East Asia, otherwise known as the Indies as Europeans called them. Christopher Columbus sailed west across the Atlantic Ocean to find a route that went to East Asia, but he landed in the Americas. The Europeans realized that he found what they called the “New World” and not East Asia . This age of exploration made European nations rush to claim lands in the Americas for themselves. Even though the Europeans found a lot of land, the early explorers suffered many hardships. Another motive that led to the age of exploration was that many people wanted to gain more knowledge and the explorations were encouraged by national governments, which had to be ones that were wealthy enough to finance such exploration. The Europeans were also encouraged to explore the world because they had to look for things th...
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... ultimately into the hands of Italian and German bankers and merchants.”
The age of exploration facilitated the rise of Europe because they expanded their land, which equals more power, achieved wealth and many valuable goods, the economic condition were improving, the population was increasing and gained a lot of knowledge.
Works Cited
“HIS 101 – Western Civilization I Lecture 12--The Age of Discovery.” Central Virginia Community College. 2014. Website. 5/2/14. < http://courses.cvcc.vccs.edu/history_mcgee/courses/his101/Lectures/his101ln12.html>.
Kreis, Steven. “Lecture 2: The Age of Discovery.” The History Guide. 2013. Website. 5/2/14. < http://www.historyguide.org/earlymod/lecture2c.HTML>.
“Western European Culture--Significant Developments, 1450—1815.” CUIP – In the Schools. 2014. Website. 5/2/14. .
In 1453 the Ottomans took control of Constantinople, and effectively cut off direct European trade to East Asia. Because of this, in the late 15th and early 16th centuries, exploration in search of alternative routes became a key focus of Western European nations.
As new ideas traveled main trade routes, such as the Silk Road and the Mediterranean, the effects of such were felt through an influx of contact between countries due to increased desire for new information and countries gaining a larger presence on the world stage. This phenomenon can also be seen through the lens of cultural exchange that took place during this same time period in Eurasia. A major component of the Eurasian trade networks, such as the Silk Road and Indian Ocean, was that they fostered interregional contacts that had ceased to previously exist. When a country had a desire for study or technology, they earned more respect on the global stage. This can be further examined by looking at Marco Polo’s voyage into Asia.
The modern world is linked through networks of communication and exchange between peoples. These exchanges between regions has changed cultures, economics, and politics. Through time the cultural influence between regions has consisted of many factors and elements but comes down to the spread of religion and religious teachings , movement of peoples, technological and cultural advancements affecting trade and commerce. Beginning with the Middle Ages in the years 1100-1500 , Africa, Asia, and Europe developed and influenced each other in several different ways. Starting with religion. The birth of Islam in the Middle East rapidly spread throughout Afro- Eurasia. Islam was attractive to people who were uninterested in the requirements of Christianity and the Church.
During the 15th century Europe had numerous changes. The population expanded rapidly which gave rise to new classes of merchants. European nations were very wealthy when it came to spices. Therefore, they traded them on the land route from Asia. These land routes were controlled by the Turkish Empire, which lead to many problems for the countries who were trying to trade these spices and acquire other valuables. This then steered them to begin searching for other routes of trade to essentially cut out the “middle man”. A race then began to erupt between many European countries such as Portugal, Spain, France, and England. These four countries all wanted to be the first to discover new land. However, Portugal pulled ahead and sailed along
To begin with, Gold was the most significant motivation of ‘the age of exploration’. ‘The age of exploration’ began in the early 15th century and it lasted until the 17th century. The purpose of numerous explorations at that time was to find gold. Since the trades between the West and the East had started, various kinds of merchandise drastically flowed to Europe. Among the eastern products, what Europeans were most interested in was gold. Royal families and nobles were eager to acquire gold to show off their wealth and power. Merchants in Venetia, or other cities also wanted golden products to make big profits in their transactions. Accordingly, they planned to explore the unknown world in purpose of possessing more gold. In addition, the travelers are obliged to search gold in expeditions by the kingdoms. Since Explorers often had a lack of funding needed for their journeys, they should rely on the kingdoms which can afford the expenses. Ships, crews and sailing utilities were provided for the adventures by the nations. In exchange of these supports, kingdoms required the explorers to search the location of the valuable jewels and offer some of them. Hence, travelers were de...
The age of exploration, discovery and expansion between 1500th thru 1600th had people eager to traverse the world and find new adventures. The Spanish and British motivation for exploration into the New World were similar; both were seeking wealth, wanted to discover new trade routes, and identify locations for settlement (Troolin). Although, both countries had similar motives each had specific agendas that would later influence North, South and Central Americas future.
An ocean route was sought to the countries that were believed to contain riches beyond European comprehension, thus avoiding having to pay hundreds of miscellaneous middlemen involved with trade, also making for a shorter journey. These motivations were accompanied by the desire to convert the heathen to Christianity, which had been declining since the rise of Islam. By uniting some of the Western Asian countries with Christianity, Europeans hoped to form a formidable team against the Turks and recover the valuable Holy Land (Morison, p.55).
3. Jackson J. Spielvogel. Western Civilization Third Edition, A Brief History volume 1: to 1715. 2005 Belmont CA. Wadsworth Publishing
The other reason for exploration was everyone wanted more land to expand their power. Both England and France got into multiple confrontations over land. With at least only 4 wars, England and France spent at least 32 years at war with each other (Document 7). Of those wars Britain mostly had the best outcomes of them. With Britain acquiring all this land, the slave trade then started appearing.Slaves were put on ships with horrible conditions (Document 4). Expansion of the new world was a major demand and also was a cause for the slave
Reaching towards the peak of trade, Europe faced difficulties in trading with Asia due to sections of multiple trade routes being dominated by Muslims. This meant that men were lost and it took a great amount of time to be able to give and receive the products being traded. This was when Christopher Columbus proposed a solution, believing that a route which sailed west through the Atlantic Ocean, would be a much safer and faster way of trading with Asia.
1.) As a whole, the entry of the Europeans into the Asian sea trading network had relatively little effect on the entire system. The entry of the Europeans into the network led to the establishment of new trade routes in the Indian Ocean to the southern Atlantic near the Cape of Good Hope. In water, the Europeans were superior militarily, but on land against fortified Asian settlements, the Asians far surpassed the Europeans technologically. The only superior items that the Europeans had were small, fast sea vessels such as caravels, clocks, and weaponry. This situation of inferiority led to the Europeans’ plan of adaptation to the Asian network instead of trying to control it. Although the Europeans had little to offer, the agricultural items introduced such as crops first cultivated in the Americas proved to be very sustainable and led to large amounts of population growth, but the growing numbers eventually led to the spread of epidemic diseases that ultimately ravaged both Asian and European populations.
The Age of Exploration in Europe developed along with the Renaissance. In Western history, both periods served as transitional movements between the early modern and Middle Ages periods. The evolution as well as advancement of abroad exploration was fueled by competition between growing European empires like England and Spain. The size as well as the influence of European empires expanded greatly during this time as it was motivated by profit, religion and power. The exploration’s effects were felt both abroad as well as in the geographical boundaries of Europe itself. The political, cultural and economical influences of Europe’s early stages of international exploration affected the continuing development of European society as well as the whole world.
European nations felt bored with what they had. They wanted to explore the world and spend and earn money. They wanted to control the countries also. Europe thought that expansion would get them resources and markets to trade with. Europeans were motivated to expand because they knew the economy would grow stronger, they did not want other untrusted countries gaining resources and goods, and they had pity on the countries that were not organized or governed.
European exploration brought many new ideas and practices to the world. Europeans exploration discoveries brought negative and positive impacts to the society they were building. The explorations was a success for many countries, but it also was a loss for a lot of Native Americans people. The exploration started a new mankind, it gave countries and people items they never had. The discovery of new world was a big impacts from the European exploration. Countries were now fighting over lands and the resources that were on the land. Slavery and the Columbian change were also big impacts from the exploration. The world changed because of these three big impacts of the European explorations. There
Exploration led to colonization and was carried out for many reasons but the main reasons include religion, status, economic purposes, resources and militarily tactical purposes. Much of early colonization was for trading of raw materials between continents and countries. Dominant religions sought to spread gospel and “civilize” the indigenous people by making them conform to Western beliefs and ways. Status and recognition was also pursued by country leaders w... ... middle of paper ... ...