In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Europeans began to explore further than they ever had before. Many history books have come to call this time period, The Age of Exploration. The motivation for exploration varied; the need for more land, freedom of religion, political centralization, economic and financial factors, and technological advances were among the many. These brave explorers left home in search of quicker trade routes, religious freedoms, new livelihoods, self-government, or simply to expand their respective nation. The explorers during The Age of Exploration often did not find exactly what they had been searching for, but none the less; their findings were sufficient to continue and many others to follow. The exchanges …show more content…
‘Financial crashes were common, most famously, frequent bankruptcies by the Spanish crown.’ (Encyclopaedia Britannica Inc.) Additionally, as is common knowledge, religious reasons gave many colonists motivation to explore outside their borders. ‘The Protestant Revolution gave way for Puritans to break away. Some of the more radical Puritans, or separatists, wished to worship separate from the Church of England, which was illegal and the began looking for refuge elsewhere.’ (Brinkley 19) Finally, came a shift in technology, “changes in shipbuilding and in the development of navigational aids allowed bigger ships to sail with smaller crews over longer distances.” (Encyclopaedia Britannica Inc.) This all gave the Europeans motivation to push out of their borders further than they had even …show more content…
Many didn’t have a clue what to expect on their travels. ‘Portugal took the lead into exploration. Portuguese seamen sailed southward along the African coast, seeking a new route to Asia for the purpose of trade.’ (A+E Networks) Later, Columbus attempted to sail west in hopes of arriving in Asia, but instead found the Americas. Once, the Europeans started exploring “The New World”, they realized it held great potential and they began to settle the land. “Acquiring colonies gave Europeans abundant raw materials used for manufacturing”, and thus new trade routes were created. (Brinkley 19) “The emerging tobacco economy soon created a heavy demand for labor” ‘and the Virginia Company created the “headright system”, which gave plots of land to colonists. These headrights encouraged whole families to come.’(Brinkley
Before anything Puritans came to the New World looking for freedom from the British Crown. While in their empire they had to obey the New England church, in which they absolutely hated. So it was promised that in the Americas they would not only have religious freedom the the chance to own their own land and properties, and lots of it. At first Salutary Neglect came to the colonize where Britain tried to impose laws or “acts” to the colonized but they were never truly enforced.
Colonists did not want to travel west just for the sake of exploring the new land, they wanted to make a profit in doing so. One easy way for the Colonists to make lots of money in 18th-century America was to participate in the slave trade. Colonists saw an opportunity to get rich by taking over Native land to expand their slave businesses and build new settlements in the west. However, the proclamation of 1763 prevented them from doing so which infuriated them. Horne argues that this was one of the primary causes of the American Revolution and that the famous taxes that the British later placed on the colonists, such as the stamp act, just added more fuel to the already existing fire.
In the 1500’s and 1600’s, Europe dived into an era of exploration of new trade routes. Exploration carried out by explorers like Cortes, Diaz and Da Gama led Europe into new lands. The main motivations of these explorers were to gather spices and gold. Their countries were infatuated with the spices of Asia and with precious metals. Religion was not the main motivation for European exploration during the 15th and 16th centuries; however, the search for wealth was.
Europe 's government greatly demanded spices and gold from Asia, so they tried to find a water route to Asia. Columbus sailed towards what he thought was Asia, but instead found America. During the voyage, there was a risk of no winds, unknown weather, and shortages of supplies. When Columbus saw land, he anchored all of the ships and headed for land. Columbus named the new island San Salvador, and started exploring the fairly tropical area.
In chapter 1 of Discovering Our Past: The American Journey, by Glencoe, the main idea is exploration and its impact on the Americas. Clearly, exploration made a huge impact on the world by discovering new places, finding new routes, and riches. Portugal and Spain unleashed a new era of exploration by searching for sea routes to Asia by ship, Portugal mainly started the “Age of Exploration” because a sailor named Bartholomeu Dias reached the southern tip of Africa which was new land to them and a little while after, Vasco da Gama found the “long awaited” Sea route to Asia which inspired other people to sail as well. Other people had different goals while exploring the sea, like Ferdinand Magellan who was the leader of the first crew to sail around the world.
This became known as the Columbian Exchange. The Columbian Exchange carried with it both positive and negative effects. Such negative effects included illnesses, and buying and selling
The missionaries in India allowed for Christianity to spread and flourish in the world. Without the search, colonization, and conversion of India, the world we know today would be delayed if not nonexistent. European exploration began during the Middle Ages. During the late 13th century, Italian explorer Marco Polo went on a 25-year overland journey through Mongolia and Japan in search of a route to the Far East for trading textiles and spices. By the mid-14th century, the Ottoman Empire had conquered most of the area between Europe and the Far East, and Arab traders were charging expensive fees for their spices.
During the Colonial times in America, people from all over Europe migrated to the new American Continent. They came for many reasons such as religious freedom, escape a destitute life, laws or taxes, and most to escape King George III of Britain. Yet the miles of ocean separating them from Britain did not save them from the oppression of Britain’s King or his tax demands. This caused a major unrest among the colonies and eventually led to the Revolutionary War.
A lot of the new things introduced to the New World, or the Americas, was beneficial to its people, but many things were also detrimental. An extensive amount of things were exchanged between the New World and the Old World during this time, especially
The Age of Exploration occurred from 1400 to 1700 C.E. It is famously known as the Age of Exploration because it was a time when explorers from Europe travelled by sea to explore west of them, and make many geographical advances. Exploration was motivated by gold, glory, and God. Along with their motivation, the Europeans also wanted to find trading partners, new goods, new trade routes, and simply find new land. With exploration, there were many good effects and many bad ones.
The Expansion West During the early age of the United States there was a push for more land. More and more new immigrants started coming over to America, which led to new opportunities for them and the fight for the land amongst everyone. The opportunity for people to start and create a better life for themselves, was the chance they took. Many Native Americans were forced to move and leave their homeland because of this.
The feeling of treading new lands, that is what the first Europeans experienced. When Christopher Columbus returned to Spain is when the age of exploration truly began. The Spanish conquistadors were the first of the European explorers whom came to the Americas. There were four reasons why they decided to start exploring the new world. These reasons include; the willingness to learn, religion, economics, and politics.
In general, the Western Hemisphere became a magnet for immigrants and between 1650 and the 1750s, the colonies in America grew in population, there economic system began to flourish and the different cultures that were migrating to the promise land. The United States was viewed as a gold mine for many Europeans and immigrants from all over were looking for opportunity to be free from their government rule and have a chance of prosperity. Therefore, when the opportunity presented itself, they all packed their little belongings they had and sail across to the land of opportunity. The initial settlers found the task to be daunting at times and for them to own build this new country and create the government opposite to what they’ve come from
During the 15th and 16th centuries, leaders of a few European nations sent expeditions out in the hope that explorers would find great wealth and vast undiscovered lands. The Portuguese were the earliest participants in this “Age of Discovery.” Starting in about 1420, Portuguese ships sailed the African coast, carrying spices, gold, slaves and other goods from Africa and Asia to Europe.
Other colonies were settled and established for large profits. Jamestown and the Carolinas were large growers of tobacco and they exported it to Europe (Wandrei, n.d.). Because the crop was so labor intensive, the owners of the colony offered payment in the form of additional land for those settlers that brought indentured servants to help plant and harvest the