Reasons for Exploration 2025-2026

Overview

Europeans explored for:

• God – Share Christain beliefs with others

• Gold – Gain wealth from trade and land

• Glory – National pride and fame

• Curiosity - search for knowledge

• Europeans wanted to share Christianity with others.

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Religious Motives

• Mercantilism: Nations gain power by gaining money

• Countries competed for gold land, raw materials and trade

• Search for new trade routes to Asia

• New trade routes linked Europe, Africa, and the Americas

• Raw materials sent to Europe

• Finished products sent to Africa and the Americas

• Africans were enslaved and sent to the Americas to work in exchange for European goods

Triangular Trade

• Exchange of goods, diseases, etc between Europe and the Americas

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• National pride

• Fame

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​Glory

• A time of curiosity & learning in Europe

• Began exploring new lands and mapping the world

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Curiosity

• Spread Catholicism, gain land, wanted gold

• Enslaved native people

• Colonized parts of Central, South, and North America

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Motives by country: Spain

• Sailed for Spain in search of Asia

• Reached the Caribbean

• Began European exploration

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Christopher Columbus - 1492

• Conquered the Aztec Empire in Mexico

• Claimed land and wealth for Spain

• Search for Northwest Passage (imaginary short cut from Europe to Asia) & fur trade

• Settled in Canada, the Louisiana Territory, and parts of the Caribbean

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Motives by country: France

• Explored the Mississippi River

• Claimed Louisiana for France

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Robert de La Salle - 1682

• find gold, trade routes, natural resources expand empire (land)

• settled eastern coast of North America

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Motives by country: Great Britain

• Explored the Canadian coast

• Helped England claim land

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John Cabot - 1497

• Explored northeast North America

• Found Hudson River and Bay

• Claimed land for the English & Dutch

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Henry Hudson - 1611

• forced to come against their will

• forced to do work that Europeans weren't willing to do

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Motives by country: Africa

​Europeans

• reached and coloninzed the Americas

• established new trade routes

• developement of triangular trade and Columbian exchange

• expanded knowledge of world geography

• conflict with Native Americans

• increased rivalry between European countries