What range of motives impelled Europeans around the world?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

A. Motives for European explorations around the world
1. Europe's outreach into the Atlantic
a. not the result of science or strength
b. result of delusion and desperation
c. it helped to come from behind
2. prosperous cultures with access to the Indian Ocean felt no need to explore
remote lands and seas for new resources
a. for cash-strapped Europe, attempt to exploit the Atlantic for new
products was like the efforts of underdeveloped countries today
b. paid off in some ways
3. chivalry
a. typical chivalrous hero took to the sea, conquered an island,
married a princess, and became a ruler
b. explorers often men of humble social origins tried to embody these
fictions in real life
4. millenarian fantasies may have influenced overseas expansion
a. Franciscan friars who supported Columbus believed an "Age of the
Holy Spirit," which would precede the end of the world, was coming
soon, and some of them thought the New World the place where
such an age might begin
b. first king of Portugal's dynasty was actually called "Messiah of
Portugal"
c. Columbus claimed the profits of his discoveries could be used to
conquer Jerusalem and help complete God's plans for a new age
5. Humanism also helped arouse European interest in the wider world
a. work of Ptolemy, originally written in Alexandria in the second
century, invited intense speculation about geography, mapping the
world, and the limits of exploration
b. Strabo, geographer who sought to reconstruct Homer's mental
map of the world, prompted questions about finding previously
unknown continents in the ocean
c. Humanists' fascination with the history of language reinforced the
search for "primitive" peoples who might cast light on question of
how language originated