Lesson 1.2 · Period 1 · CED topic 1.3
Why Europeans crossed the Atlantic
Why did Portuguese, Spanish, French, and English sailors spend the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries pushing into the Atlantic? Historians and the CED answer with three linked motives: the search for wealth, economic and military competition among European states, and the desire to spread Christianity. Students who memorize the shorthand "God, gold, and glory" are close, but the exam wants you to explain how each motive worked in a particular case. This lesson also gives you the first set of exploration facts you will use for the rest of Period 1: who sailed, when, and for which crown.
Learning objective.
- 1C. Explain the causes of exploration and conquest of the New World by various European nations.
Historical developments.
- 1.2.I.A. European nations’ efforts to explore and conquer the New World stemmed from a search for new sources of wealth, economic and military competition, and a desire to spread Christianity.
Wealth: the pull of Asian trade
In the 1400s, European demand for Asian goods outran supply. Spices, silk, and fine cotton traveled thousands of miles overland and across the Indian Ocean, passing through many hands, and each hand took a profit. Merchants in the Italian cities controlled much of the Mediterranean end of the trade, and kings in Portugal, Spain, England, and France wanted a share of those profits for their own treasuries. A direct sea route to Asia, or any new source of gold, silver, sugar, or fish, promised enormous gains.
Portugal moved first. Under the sponsorship of Prince Henry the Navigator, Portuguese captains worked their way down the west coast of Africa through the 1400s, establishing trading posts for gold and enslaved people. In 1488 Bartolomeu Dias rounded the southern tip of Africa, and in 1498 Vasco da Gama reached India. Those voyages depended on improvements in maritime technology: the caravel, a ship that could sail closer to the wind; the magnetic compass and the astrolabe for finding direction and latitude; and better maps and charts.
Competition among European states
Rivalry made the race urgent. The monarchies of Portugal, Spain, France, and England were consolidating power and fighting costly wars, and each needed revenue. A rival's gain was a rival's military strength, so a successful voyage created pressure on the others to match it.
- Spain. In 1492 Ferdinand and Isabella, after finishing the conquest of the last Muslim kingdom in Iberia, financed Christopher Columbus, who proposed to reach Asia by sailing west. He landed in the Caribbean, convinced he had reached the edge of Asia.
- Dividing the world. The monarchs of Spain and Portugal asked the pope to settle their claims, and in the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494) they agreed on a line west of the Cape Verde Islands: lands to the west were open to Spain, lands to the east to Portugal. Portugal's claim later gave it Brazil.
- England and France. England sent John Cabot in 1497 to the North Atlantic coast, and France sent Giovanni da Verrazzano in 1524 and Jacques Cartier in the 1530s up the St. Lawrence. Neither found a rich empire at first, so both crowns waited decades before planting colonies. When England and France did turn to colonization, they were reacting to Spain's wealth from the Americas, a good example of how competition drove the process.
Christianity as a motive
Religion mattered because rulers sincerely believed conversion was a duty and because it gave conquest a moral justification. Spanish conquest had followed the centuries-long war against Muslim kingdoms in Iberia, and Catholic missionaries, mostly Franciscans and Dominicans, traveled with soldiers and settlers to convert Native peoples. Later, Protestant England would describe colonization as a way to spread the "true" Christian faith while also competing against Catholic Spain. Do not treat religion and wealth as separate columns in a chart: Spanish missions depended on Native labor, and the crown's income depended on missions.
Description of: Richard Hakluyt the younger, A Discourse Concerning Western Planting, written 1584 for Queen Elizabeth I.
Hakluyt, an English clergyman and geographer, wrote to persuade the queen to sponsor colonies in North America. He argued that colonies would spread Protestant Christianity among Native peoples, provide new markets for English woolen cloth, give work to the country's idle poor, supply goods that England had been buying from other countries, and give English ships bases from which to threaten Spain's treasure fleets.
Sourcing (HIPP). Hakluyt wrote as an advocate with a stake in the outcome, addressing the queen, so his goal was persuasion. His list shows what one influential English promoter thought would appeal to a ruler: religion, trade, employment, and rivalry with Spain all appear together. As evidence about motives, it is stronger for English elites than for the ordinary settlers who later went, and it describes hopes, not results.
Claim. Hakluyt's argument shows that English interest in colonization combined economic, religious, and military motives.
Evidence. He promises markets for woolen cloth and work for the poor (wealth), argues that colonies will spread Protestant Christianity (religion), and points out that colonies could be bases for attacking Spain's treasure ships (competition).
Reasoning. The three motives reinforced each other: profits would support settlements, settlements would spread religion, and a stronger England would weaken Spain, England's chief rival. The document also shows context, since Hakluyt writes decades after Spain's American silver began to flood Europe.
Decide which motive best explains each event, and defend the choice in one sentence.
- Dias rounds Africa (1488) and da Gama reaches India (1498). Wealth: the goal was direct access to Asian spices, which cut out middlemen.
- Columbus's 1492 voyage. Wealth and competition: Spain's monarchs wanted a share of Asian trade and did not want Portugal to monopolize it.
- Franciscan missions in New Spain. Religion: the missionaries sought converts, though the crown's labor system gave the mission economy a profit motive too.
- England's late start. Competition: Spain's American wealth pushed England to imitate it.
The lesson: for the exam, pick the best motive, explain why, and mention a second motive if the evidence supports it.
Learning Objective C asks you to explain the causes of exploration and conquest. Write causes in full sentences with a verb that shows the link ("Competition with Portugal pushed Spain to finance Columbus"), and name a specific nation and voyage. On multiple-choice items, remember that the CED's three motives are wealth, competition, and spreading Christianity, not a love of adventure, a desire for democracy, or a wish to escape persecution. Religious freedom becomes a theme in the English colonies in the next period, not here.
- Identify the three motives the CED gives for European exploration and conquest of the Americas.
Show answer
A search for new sources of wealth, economic and military competition among European states, and a desire to spread Christianity.
- Explain how maritime technology helped make Portuguese and Spanish voyages possible.
Show answer
Caravels could sail closer to the wind, and the compass, astrolabe, and improved charts let captains find direction and latitude on the open ocean. That made long voyages down the African coast and across the Atlantic realistic.
- How did the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494) reflect competition between European states?
Show answer
Spain and Portugal, rivals for overseas territory, agreed on a line west of the Cape Verde Islands to divide new claims between them. It shows both rivalry and an attempt to manage it.
- Why did England and France wait decades after Cabot and Verrazzano before founding permanent colonies?
Show answer
They found no quick wealth like the Aztec and Inca treasure that enriched Spain, and domestic and religious conflicts absorbed their resources. Spain's success later gave them a reason to compete.
- How does the purpose of Hakluyt's Discourse limit its usefulness as evidence?
Show answer
It was written to persuade Queen Elizabeth I, so it stresses the benefits and ignores the risks, and it records the hopes of an English promoter, not the motives of ordinary colonists.
- Explain how religion and wealth were connected in the Spanish colonial effort.
Show answer
Missionaries aimed to convert Native peoples, but missions and Spanish settlements relied on Native labor, which also produced income for the crown. Conversion justified conquest while the labor system funded it.