European Explorers

Paper Summary:

The paper relates that the Portuguese, Spanish, British, French and Dutch peoples set out to discover a new world in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The paper discusses the various motives for exploration during this Age of Exploration. The paper looks at Cristobal Colon (Columbus), Ponce de Leon and Vasco da Gama. The paper relates that these explorers were financed by kings and queens who were eager to fund their adventures for potential economic, political and cultural treasures.

From the Paper:

"There were several motives for exploration during the mid-to-late 15th century, which was rightly called the Age of Exploration. The first motivation was the willingness or the courage to learn and understand other cultures. Coming out of the Renaissance, wealthy Europeans longed to find out about new lands and new people, believing that wisdom might be found along with treasures of the monetary kind, and curious about what was out there in the rest of the world, once they began to realize it was round. Prior to this enlightened age, everyone thought the earth was flat and that if you came to the edge in a ship, you simply fell off and disappeared. It was no wonder that sailors had not wanted to go sailing off into the sunset."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Glenn J. Ames Vasco da Gama: Renaissance Crusader. Longman (Sep 15, 2004).
• Steven Kreis, "The Age of Discovery." The History Guide: Lectures on Early Modern European History (2002-2007). Found online at http://www.historyguide.org/earlymod/lecture2c.html#calicut.

More papers on European Explorers:

• Research Paper # 6946 : "European Exploration of the Aztec Natives of Latin America"
• Essay # 2681 : "The Age of Discovery: European Exploration"
• Comparison Essay # 104641 : "European Exploration of Asia and the Atlantic"

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