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Reformation and Discovery: Europe c.1492-1610

Motives for exploration and the role of monarchs

  • 3 things to know
  • A2 Unit 3

Overview

Henry the Navigator's contribution, three technical advances that made ocean voyaging possible and manuel I of Portugal's part in exploration.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Key term

Summarise the three classic motives for European exploration.

Key term

Why did Europeans want a sea route to Asia?

Key term

Which spices were most sought after, and where did they grow?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    Summarise the three classic motives for European exploration.

    Model answer

    God, gold and glory: the spread of Christianity, the pursuit of wealth, and the prestige of crown and captain.

  2. 2

    Why did Europeans want a sea route to Asia?

    Model answer

    Spices, silk and other eastern luxuries reached Europe through a chain of Muslim and Venetian middlemen at enormous cost, and a direct route would capture that profit.

  3. 3

    Which spices were most sought after, and where did they grow?

    Model answer

    Pepper from India, and cloves, nutmeg and mace from the Moluccas in the East Indies.

  4. 4

    How did the fall of Constantinople affect the search for new routes?

    Model answer

    The Ottoman capture of the city in 1453 and their further expansion tightened control of the eastern routes and sharpened the incentive to find a way round them.

  5. 5

    What religious motive drove Iberian expansion in particular?

    Model answer

    The crusading tradition of the reconquista, completed with the fall of Granada in 1492, carried straight over into overseas conquest and mission.

  6. 6

    Who was Prester John, and why did he matter to the Portuguese?

    Model answer

    A legendary Christian king believed to rule somewhere in Africa or the east, whom they hoped to reach and enlist as an ally against Islam.

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