Why Did Europeans Expand Into America, Africa and Asia Between 1415 and 1715?
During the sixteenth century expansion became a key theme across the face of Early Modern Europe; this caused the sixteenth century to acquire the retrospective name of the Age of Expansion or Age of Discovery. According to the historian Richard Mackenney the cause of European expansion during this period can be explained in terms of three major symptoms: overseas discovery, population growth and price inflation all of which are tied together in a complex multiplicity making in difficult to isolate one symptom from the others. Alongside these three key factors is another two factors, Emperor Charles Habsburg’s (Charles V) call for expansion of Christendom by converting the natives of the New World and the desire for economic power through monopolising on the trading of specific commodities, mainly spices although this also including fabrics, foodstuffs, basic resources and curiosities.
Exploration had not been an entirely new concept to the world of Early Modern Europe. During the Middle Ages exploration had been overland and eastward, mostly dominated by tales of the Italian Marco Polo and his establishment of embassies with trading posts such as Constantinople and Samarkand along the illustrious Silk Road, which stretched all the way from Venice to China via Asia Minor, Persia and India. Come the turn of the fifteenth century, due to the advent of new navigational science replacing the dated classical geography of Ptolemy, discovery turned westward towards yet to be discovered America and south into what Ptolemy had called on his maps terra incognita, or lands unknown, which turned out to be the unchartered regions of Africa. Both these directions of exploration were partly in search of a viable sea-route in the Orient in order to break Venice’s iron-grip on the import of spices, silks and others goods from Africa and Asia. These projects were heavily dominated by Portugal and Spain since France was currently busy dealing with conflicts of both internal and
Exploration had not been an entirely new concept to the world of Early Modern Europe. During the Middle Ages exploration had been overland and eastward, mostly dominated by tales of the Italian Marco Polo and his establishment of embassies with trading posts such as Constantinople and Samarkand along the illustrious Silk Road, which stretched all the way from Venice to China via Asia Minor, Persia and India. Come the turn of the fifteenth century, due to the advent of new navigational science replacing the dated classical geography of Ptolemy, discovery turned westward towards yet to be discovered America and south into what Ptolemy had called on his maps terra incognita, or lands unknown, which turned out to be the unchartered regions of Africa. Both these directions of exploration were partly in search of a viable sea-route in the Orient in order to break Venice’s iron-grip on the import of spices, silks and others goods from Africa and Asia. These projects were heavily dominated by Portugal and Spain since France was currently busy dealing with conflicts of both internal and