Thomas More Utopia Analysis

Politics, religion, social structure, and economics are necessary components of a society. The European countries in the late fifteenth century were in competition with each other to perfect these ideas. They wanted more power, wealth, resources, and perfection of society. They wanted to create utopia. But what is a utopia?
The word was first mentioned by Thomas More in his book titled Utopia, published in 1516. (8) This was after the beginning of European exploration in the Americas, yet it holds key information in understanding the concept of utopia which the royal families of Europe held so dear. In his book, More describes an ideal island and its customs. The island’s political, social, religious, and economic customs are perfect. The
The reports of new products such as spices, precious metals, intelligent laborers, and vast lands sparked the interest of the royal families of Europe. (7) They began to see this new land of the Orient as a possible economic utopia. This area became a place of hope and promise to expand their homeland utopia. They, however, did not have a defined quick route to the Orient. (7) This lack of a route caused the royals to seek out explorers to employ in order to find an efficient route to the economic
They had economic motives, of greed, indulgence, and power. The royals did not want to merely survive, but have an excess of goods and thrive and grow their utopian society. The descriptions of the Orient and the Americas were wrapped up in the ancient stories of distant utopian lands. The Garden of Eden, Babylon, El Dorado, were all forms of the concept of utopia that the royals were after. (7) These stories promised of power, wealth, resources, and perfection, all things that the royals wanted. Explorers were sent out to find an economic utopia which was needed to establish their homeland utopia. Their reports of opportunity only furthered the desire to gain a utopia for themselves. It was an endless cycle of desire and greed, along with discovery and opportunity. Many things have contributed to the history of exploration, among them were politics, social ideas, religion, and most importantly economics. All of these were sought to be made perfect by the royals to establish their own utopian