Factors That Influenced Spanish Explorations

560 Words3 Pages
In the early 15th century and continuing into the 17th century, arose the period known as The Age of Discovery/Age of Exploration. It was during this period that the Europeans, well versed in navigation, science and economic practices explored places such as Africa and the Americas. These Spanish Explorations were embarked upon mainly for the purpose of finding cheaper and easier trade routes to Asia. These Explorations were facilitated by a few board factors; Ideology, Infrastructure, Opportunities and motives. All of which housed many other sub-factors that influenced their exploration. The factor of ideology entailed; Bullionism, the belief in supplies of bullion. (gold and silver) Each state measured their wealth by the amount of gold and silver they could source and store physically. This influenced voyages to other lands, competing with other nations in an effort to amass hoards of gold. Another sub-factor of ideology was Religion where the Europeans set out on excursions to convert from other nations and discovered colonies to Christianity. The nations of Spain and Portugal strong Catholics were well known for these excursions. Another sub-factor under ideology, and one of the main reasons for their voyages was Colonialism. This idea was born out of the theory which idealized economic growth through trades and control. Another broad factor that influenced these excursions was Infrastructure. This entailed the investment of wealth into new ideas and technologies. These items included; compasses, an instrument for determining direction through the use of a magnetic needle. Gunpowder, an explosive mixture of chemical in which they saw its ‘potential’ as an instrument of war. They also came across many intellectual and developing technologies which allowed for them to improve their infrastructure and modify the ships to facilitate faster and smoother
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