When Marco Polo reached the court of Kublai Khan in China after the European crusaders battled Muslims for control of the Holy Lands in Southwest Asia, the Europeans didn't have the interest or the ability to explore foreign lands. The Renaissance encouraged a new spirit of adventure and curiosity, so by the early 1400s the Europeans wanted to grow rich and spread Christianity and have advances in sailing technology to create an age of European exploration. Their main motives for European Exploration were god, glory, and gold.
Next, god motivated the Europeans to spread Christianity throughout the world. Europeans hoped to obtain popular goods directly from the peoples of Asia and to Christianize them. Then because of colonization it became a race to convert native people to a particular brand of Christianity. The colonizers sent missionaries to America to convert the natives to Catholicism to achieve salvation and to accept the claims to absolute power made by the kings of France and Spain. Bartolomeu Dias, an early Portuguese explorer, explained his motives: "to serve God and His Majesty, to give light to those who were in darkness and to grow rich as all men desire to do." Europeans had always seen spreading Christianity as a good thing so after the Reformation the competition did spring up.
Third, glory motivated the Europeans wanted the biggest empires with the most land and to spread their culture to other areas of the world because they believed their cultures were the best. The more colonies a country had, the more wealth it had, also there would be more natural resources. Colonizing also opened new markets which meant the country could sell things to the people on those areas and make even more money. Also, individuals kings wanted glory for their kingdoms so competition spreaded. Soon there was imperialism, when one country took over another. Explorers could have an opportunity to rise from middle class to heroic status if their voyages went well. Both the explorers ...
