What factors led to colonialism from the 1500s through the 1700s? The motivations for the first wave of colonial expansion can be summed up as
God, Gold, and Glory
: God, because missionaries felt it was their moral duty to spread Christianity, and they believed a higher power would reward them for saving the souls of colonial subjects; gold, because colonizers would exploit resources …
How did Colonisation start?
Western colonialism, a political-economic phenomenon whereby various European nations explored, conquered, settled, and exploited large areas of the world. The age of modern colonialism began about 1500,
following the European discoveries of a sea route around Africa’s southern coast (1488) and of America (1492)
.
What are the 4 major reasons for European exploration and colonization?
Reasons for Exploration: All of the European nations ( Spain, France, England, and the Netherlands) came to America for the same 4 major reasons:
wealth & power, religion, nationalism, and the Renaissance spirit of curiosity and adventure
.
What factors motivated the European explorations of the 15th and 16th centuries?
Main Reasons For European Exploration In The 15th And 16th Century.
The European economic motivation
was the main cause of European exploration in the 15th and 16th centuries. New trade, and the search for gold and spices were the three main motives behind Europe’s thirst for exploration and discovery.
Why did Europeans explore the world in the 1500s?
Along with the idea of
looking for new trade routes
, they also hoped to find new sources of gold, silver, and other valuables. Additionally, Europeans saw exploration as a way to bring Christianity to other cultures that lived in other lands.
The purposes of colonialism included
economic exploitation of the colony’s natural resources, creation of new markets for the colonizer, and extension of the colonizer’s way of life beyond its national borders
.
European countries recognized the potential profits of securing better trade with Asia
and sought new routes by sea. Commissioned by Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand of Spain, Italian explorer Christopher Columbus was among the first who sought a faster, more direct route to Asia by sailing west rather than east.
The two main reasons for European exploration were
to gain new sources of wealth
. By exploring the seas, traders hoped to find new, faster routes to Asia—the source of spices and luxury goods. Another reason for exploration was spreading Christianity to new lands.
Europeans wanted
to gain riches from the New World
. They also wanted to claim land for their countries.
Colonialism in the modern sense began with
the “Age of Discovery”, led by Portuguese, and then by the Spanish exploration of the Americas, the coasts of Africa, Southwest Asia which is also known as the Middle East, India, and East Asia
.
The invasion of the North American continent and its peoples began with the Spanish in
1565
at St. Augustine, Florida, then British in 1587 when the Plymouth Company established a settlement that they dubbed Roanoke in present-day Virginia.
The Reformation, the Renaissance and New Trade Routes
Between 1000 and 1650, a series of interconnected developments occurred in Europe that provided the impetus for the exploration and subsequent colonization of America.
Time period during the 15th and 16th centuries when Europeans searched for
new sources of wealth and for easier trade routes to China and India
. Resulted in the discovery of North and South America by the Europeans.
In the late 1800’s,
economic, political and religious motives
prompted European nations to expand their rule over other regions with the goal to make the empire bigger. The Industrial Revolution of the 1800’s created a need for natural resources to fuel the newly invented machinery and transportation.
Many nations were looking for goods such as silver and gold, but one of the biggest reasons for exploration was
the desire to find a new route for the spice and silk trades
. When the Ottoman Empire took control of Constantinople in 1453, it blocked European access to the area, severely limiting trade.
- lost control over their lands.
- African traditions were destroyed.
- Africans forced out of their homes.
In the Americas, Africa, and Asia, colonization generally consisted of 4 stages:
recon, invasion, occupation, and assimilation
.
Majorly there are two types of colonialism:
Settler colonialism and Exploitation colonialism
. The Settler colonialism involves immigration at large scale as an outcome of religious, economic or political issues. Exploitation colonialism involves the trade and commerce like the export of goods or even the slave trade.
