The Impact Of Maritime Technology On The Age Of Exploration

The period of time known as the Age of Exploration officially began in the early 15th century and ended during the 17th century. Many explorers began exploring the world by sea in hope and search of new trading routes, knowledge, ideas and wealth. The impact of the Age of Exploration changed the everyone’s perspective on geography and into the modern science it is today. The Age of Exploration was a critical turning point in history. It had not only impacted Europe, but had a lasting impact on the whole world. This exploration lead to many effects including the Columbian Exchange, a global trade of animals, plants and technology and the conquest of many ancient nations.

The Renaissance and the Age of Exploration brought on new ideas, technology, and tools that allowed the Europeans to travel across sea. The Europeans traveled to Africa in search of grains, spices, ivory, gold and slaves. Upon further exploration they found China. In China they found what they were searching for, they found silk cloth, spices and goods. The Europeans wanted to gain power by expanding their empire and search for gold. New technology, firepower, greed, and curiosity drove the Europeans to explore western

The desire to explore the unknown has been a driving force in human history since the dawn of time. From the earliest documented accounts, ancient civilizations have explored the world around them. Early adventures were motivated by religious beliefs, a desire for conquest, the need for trade, and an unsatisfying hunger for gold. The great Age of Exploration, beginning in the late 1400s, was an important era in the discovery and development of lands yet unknown to the Europeans. During this period, Europe sought new sea routes to Asia in pursuit of economic gain, increased glory, and opportunities to spread Christianity. Although these were motivations for explorers, the impact from the discoveries resulted in significant changes and

The age of exploration was driven by many causes. One of the biggest reasons being the desire to find a new route to Asia. The yearn for riches and spices was high and both could be found in the heart of Asia.

The Age of Exploration took place in the 15th century all the way to the 16th century. During this time period European explorers travelled all over the world searching for new trade routes and land. All these explorers had different motivations to go on voyages, and although religion was one of the motives of exploration, it wasn’t the main one. Economics and technology also played vital roles in European exploration.

The Age of Exploration had a lot of technological advances that helped them launch. For example, the Carvel was a ship that had many uses. These ships were from small to medium. There were two more things that helped them out and they had an explorer ship, which that helped all of the explorers travel and helped them get place to place.

One of the most popular reasons Europeans came to the Americas was during their search for new trade routes. Europeans desired spices and other items from India and China, but the only way to reach them was through Muslim territory in the Mediterranean. Explorers at first tried sailing around Africa, but the trip was long and treacherous. Eventually, Spain set out to travel east across the world in order to reach Asia. They sent Christopher Columbus across the Atlantic Ocean, but instead of reaching Asia, he landed in the Caribbean. The explorers did not reach their intended target of the spice trade, but rather landed on a previously undiscovered world between the two continents.

There were a couple major reasons why different European countries decided to explore westward towards the Americas. The first reason was because after the crusades had failed and Constantinople was taken by the Ottomans in 1453, the overland routes along the Silk Road to the far-east became much more treacherous and expensive for the Western European kingdoms. To overcome this obstacle, the Europeans looked for alternate routes to the orient.

The early 1500’s was known in history as The Age of Exploration. At the time anyone who was involved with exploration had their own motives such as wealth, trade, glory, and the spread of Christianity. People became more involved with exploration because it created new trading routes, applied new technologies, created economic goals, and rise of nations. Exploration in the 1500’s relates back to US history because during the Age of Exploration America was founded. Portugal took the lead in search of the first all-water route to Asia.

The primary cause of European exploration and conquest during the 15th and 16th centuries was Europe’s strong desire to discover new trade passageways to Asia. In 1419, the city of Venice negotiated a dominating trade deal with the Ottoman empire, resulting in the Venetian-Ottoman trade monopoly. This led to exploration because the trade deal meant that European nation states such as Spain and Portugal could only buy goods from Venetian merchants (Venice was the intermediator between Europe and the Indian Ocean), and this motivated Europeans to endeavor to circumvent Venice and the Ottoman Empire in hopes of reaching India to buy

During the Age of Exploration, Europeans left their homes and set out to explore unknown seas. There were mainly 3 things that motivated the Europeans, known as the 3 G’s: God, Glory, and Gold. These 3 things motivated them to explore these unknown seas the most. These were not the only things they wanted, however. They also set out to seek spices, medicine, and other natural resources such as timber, ivory, sugar, and tobacco.

Around five hundred years ago, before people knew that land existed elsewhere, many Europeans traveled a route to the east. However, on that route were merchants would bring oriental luxuries proved to be one of the hardship journeys at the time, mainly because it was a long route. In that era, a discovery had been made where Greek and Roman text sparked an intellectual ingenuity. in addition, through scientific research many inventions had been made, some of which helped the Spanish colonized the Americas. For example, some began to believe that the earth was round and began to sail west with the help of compasses who were more accurate, instruments that would help them navigate and also "stronger, larger ships armed with cannons and capable of oceanic voyages"(p.17)

There is a lot of ways that Technology helped the Europeans discovered the Americas. With the better technology, the easier it was to find the Americas. Which meant that every time an explorer came back, another one would go a little farther. So with better technology, they can find more land, more resources, and spread their religion. They could also map new grounds.

Trade was the first motive for European exploration. During the 15th and 16th centuries, the Italians and Muslims had control of the Mediterranean. Because of this, countries such as Portugal lacked access to Asian trade routes, since they lacked the resources to break through “the Italian dominated trade of the Mediterranean” (Arnold 4) Such countries were forced to explore and expand in order to find new routes around the world to reach Asia, causing them to search for goods and trade beyond their borders, acquiring land and resources along the way, which in turn expanded European trade and economy. Another factor was Europe's search for new trade. European merchants discovered that they could no longer sell their merchandise in Asia and Africa, as many of their products were deemed inferior to their African and Asian counterparts. They attempted to sell “crude woollen cloth in Asian markets accustomed to fine silks and calicoes” (Arnold 3) The Europeans needed a new market, motivating them to send explorers such as

Prior to the Age of Discovery, Europeans have enhanced their technology and increased their geographical knowledge. In the past, European navigated through the seas by observing their environment or by using portolan charts to guide them through them the Mediterranean sea. However, because of Prince Henry the Navigator, Europeans were able to travel farther with much more accuracy. Henry designed a nautical map which helped explorers travel away from shore without the possibility of being lost. This gave them the opportunity to discover more land, past their usual limits seen in the portolan charts. Not only was he able to create an efficient map, he also taught others the knowledge