European Age of Exploration

Competitive religion, capitalist economics, and strategic geographic positioning, all played an essential role in the European age of exploration. The capitalist economy was just emerging and for the first time people were seeing a new form of wealth in the form of money. Money was now being used to make more money. As opposed to trading people were now looking for unprocessed materials, such as natural resources etc., which could be refined and then sold to make money. This meant that they would have to find new land from which they could look for these resources, which meant exploration. As well, geographic location of countries played an important role. Countries situated along the Atlantic coast naturally had a higher likelihood of discovering the Americas. There geographic location also gave them the ability to examine the waters and become familiar with them which lead to the cracking of the Atlantic wind codes, which then provided them with a direct and easy path to follow to the Americas. Their coastline also allowed them to explore the waters and build boats which ultimately led to the creation of a ship called Caravels which was 25 meters in length was suited for going long distance, such as to the Americas. Lastly, competitive religion played a vital role in European exploration. The expansion of the Islamic civilization was viewed as a great threat to the Europeans, who were Christian. The Europeans wanted to spread their religion and therefore began exploring new lands in hopes of converting people, and therefore spreading their religion, and strengthening Christianity. Because of the different sects of Christianity which existed they began competing trying to reach the most people first so as to convert them before the others arrived. This religious competitiveness caused them to go out and explore the unknown world. Without the capitalist economy, strategic geographic location and competitive religion the European age of exploration may have never taken place.