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Autor: rita • January 18, 2013 • Essay • 1,236 Words (5 Pages) • 1,671 Views
uld come across on these expeditions during the 15th and 16th century. The
Renaissance (during the 14th and 15th century) sparked a role in launching the age of
exploration. Discoveries during the Renaissance lead to better technology, such as the compass
and better ships that would be able to sail weeks away from land. The Renaissance sparked
adventure and curiosity. he main desire for exploration was new sources of wealth. Italians
and Muslims controlled the trade routes of East to West. Muslims cheaply sold the Italians A
sian goods, and Italians then resold the goods at increased prices to merchants throughout
Europe. This angered many European merchants, and new monarches of English, Spain,
Portugal and France. They wanted to circumnavigate Italian merchants, which meant finding a
sea route directly to Asia. This began the age of exploration, and the dangerous hunt to be the
most wealthy and powerful country in the world.
A motive of Christopher Columbus' and Bartolomeus Dias' as they reached unknown
territories was to convert the forgeiners they came across to Christianity, and accurate records
prove this to be true. Bartolomeu Dias, a Portugese explorer stated 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" (Beck et. al. 96). In 1488, Dias and his crew set out on a voyage to Asia in search of
looking for gold. He any many others hoped to gather goods from the people of Asia. They also
hoped on converting the people of Asia to Christianity. Christians believed they had a duty to
continue fighting the Muslims, but also to convert all the non-Christians in the world.
Christopher Columbus, a devoted Christian, felt the duty to convert the natives he came across
to Christianity in 1492. In the Journal of Christopher Columbus, Colbumbus stated,
"'I' he says, 'in order that they feel great annuity towards us because I knew that they were a
people to be delivered and converted to our holy faith rather by love than by force, gave to s
ome among them some red caps
...