Europeans To World Dominance

There are many factors, both social and cultural that led to expansion and the rise of Europeans to world dominance over the course of the 15th and 16th centuries. Europe during this time period is strong and is increasingly getting stronger due to these factors. This paper will trace and explain these factors.
The rise of trade and towns along with the Crusades in the centuries leading to the age of exploring caused important impacts in Europeans' mental view that would give them the confidence to launch voyages of exploration in three different ways. First, they stimulated a desire for Eastern luxuries. Second, they exposed Europeans to new cultures, peoples and lands. Their interest in the outside world was further stimulated by the travels

of Marco Polo.
Humanism created a new view by finding that the study of ancient literature and writing of new works based on this inspiration contributes directly to the dignity, usefulness, and happiness of human beings. It adopted the values of Civis Romanus that influenced and nurtured the idea of ceaseless activity of the mind. Skepticism encouraged people to challenge older geographic notions. Individualism, gave captains the confidence in their own abilities to cross the oceans with the minuscule ships and primitive instruments for navigation at their disposal.
Europe’s geographic position also drove it to find new routes to Asia in three ways. First of all, Europe's geographic position at the far western end of the trade routes with the East allowed middlemen to take his cut and raise the cost of the silks and spices before passing them onto another middleman. Those trade routes were fragile, dangerous, and long. “It would take one strong or hostile power to enforce itself along these routes in order to disrupt the flow of trade or raise the prices.” ("The Flow of History")
For Europeans, the power was in the Ottoman Empire. The fall of the Byzantine Empire and the earlier fall of the states captured by crusades had given the Muslims a larger part of the trade directed for Europe. Europe's disadvantageous geographic position provided an incentive to find another way to the Far East.