The Race for Riches

Renaissance Inspiration: The Renaissance inspired European inventors to build ships capable of long-distance travel.
Motivations for Exploration: The desire for wealth and spreading Christianity initiated an era of European exploration in the 1400s.
Trade with Asia: Europeans highly valued spices and luxury goods from Asia, which were transported via trade routes through the Middle East and Italy.
High Prices: Arab and Italian merchants charged high prices for these imported goods.
European Merchants' Ambition: European merchants and monarchs from England, Spain, Portugal, and France sought to gain a share of these profits.
Search for a Sea Route: They aimed to discover a sea route to Asia to directly purchase goods and reduce costs.
Vasco da Gama's Voyage:
- In 1497, Vasco da Gama of Portugal successfully completed a 27,000-mile voyage around the tip of Africa to India.
- The journey lasted ten months and resulted in many sailors' deaths.
- The surviving sailors sold their cargo of spices at a 3,000-percent profit.
Portuguese Trading Empire: Portugal established a trading empire throughout the Indian Ocean and dominated the spice trade.
- Portuguese merchants offered goods from Asia at lower prices compared to Arab and Italian traders.
Other Nations' Ambitions: Other nations aimed to establish their own trading empires in Asia.
- The Dutch established trading headquarters on the island of Java and controlled much of Indonesia by 1700.
- The English and French established trading posts in India.
- Spain claimed the Philippines.
Christopher Columbus's Voyage:
- During this competitive time, Christopher Columbus sought an alternative trade route to Asia.
- Columbus, like most educated people, knew that the Earth was round.
- In 1492, Columbus sailed west across the Atlantic, believing he could circumnavigate the world and reach Asia.
- Columbus was unaware of the Earth's actual size and the existence of continents between Europe and Asia.
Columbus's Landfall:
- When Columbus landed on an island in the Caribbean Sea, he mistakenly believed he had reached Asia.
- He claimed the islands for Spain, which then sent him back to establish colonies, or lands controlled by another nation.
Realization of New Continents:
- European leaders eventually realized that Columbus had reached continents previously unknown to Europeans.
- Spain and Columbus initiated a process of colonization that would extend to nearly every part of the Americas.
Further Exploration: Over the next 200 years, European explorers journeyed to the Americas.
- The French, English, Dutch, and Portuguese also sailed across the Atlantic in search of unclaimed lands.