Unintended consequences occur throughout History. One of the most significant events that create dozens of these effects is the black plague (1346-1349). When the epidemic hit Europe in the mid-1300s, it wiped out at least a third of the population, and a chain of cause and effect began that directly led to the European Age of Exploration within one hundred years. What were the primary reasons for the Age of Exploration? What was the purpose of European exploration? What were the characteristics of exploration? And what ere the effects of the European exploration?
Reasons for European Exploration
The mass death in Europe caused by the Black Plague in the mid-1300s condensed land ownership and increased wealth for those that survived the disease. Along with political ramifications such as the breakdown of the feudal system in many European nations, the overall increase in wealth spurs two things: the Renaissance (15th and 16th Centuries) and an increase in demand for commodities, such as spices and goods from Asia. The Silk Road was the main route to trade goods from Asia to Europe from 200 BCE to the mid-1400s.
Fig. 1 - A depiction of a Plague Doctor, with hood and beak attire, from 1656
That changed when Constantinople, the central trading city connecting Asia to Europe, was sacked in 1453 and taken over by the Ottomans. These events created a situation in which demand for goods and resources from Europe was steadily increasing while, at the same time, massive disruption in the trade route occurred.
This sets the stage for European nations such as Spain and Portugal to invest in faster sea routes to Asia.
Motives for European Exploration
A complex combination of reasons prompted Europeans to explore the world’s oceans. The most important of these motives was the search for essential resources and land suitable for cultivating cash crops, the desire to establish new trade routes to Asian markets, and the aspiration to expand the influence of Christianity.
Reasons for European Exploration |
Resources and Fertile Land | Beginning with the Portuguese in the 1200s, the search for new resources to exploit and lands to cultivate commenced. Portuguese sailors ventured far away from the coasts into the open Atlantic Ocean. They initially sought fish, seals, whales, timber, and lands where they could grow wheat. By the 1300s, the Portuguese discovered the Azores, Madeira's Islands, and the Canary Islands, all of which had a climate ripe for Sugar cultivation. By the 1400s, Portuguese mariners established sugar plantations on many Atlantic islands. Continuing Portuguese voyages also led to plantations on southern Atlantic islands such as Cape Verde, Sao Tome, and Principe. Soon, other European nations, such as Spain and the Netherlands, followed the Portuguese example. |
Controlling the Trade Market | In the early years of exploring new lands and resources (this would change after the rediscovery of the “New World”) the most desirable goal was establishing maritime trade routes to the markets of Asia. By the 14th century, the wealthy classes of Europe regarded Asian spices, such as Indian pepper, Chinese ginger, cloves, and nutmeg, as expensive necessities. Merchants and European Monarchs realized that by offering direct access to Asian markets and eliminating Muslim intermediaries in Cairo and Constantinople, new maritime trade routes would increase quantities of spices and other Asian goods and create enormous profits. |
Spreading Christianity | Christianity also drove Europeans into the larger world. Christianity is a missionary religion, as The New Testament specifically urged Christians to spread their faith. Often peaceful, efforts to spread faith during the era of Mongol empires had traveled overland as far as India, Central Asia, and China. Yet the expansion of Christianity was by no means always a peaceful affair. In the 11th century, western Europeans launched a series of crusades and holy wars against the Muslims in Palestine, the Mediterranean, and Iberia (Spain). |
These motives for exploration mixed and reinforced each other. For example, Prince Henry the Navigator - a Portuguese explorer, financed voyages of exploration in west Africa in search of gold and trade, discovered profitable new trade routes, gained information about Muslim control of the region, and found Christian converts.
Fig. 2 - Prince Henry the Navigator
African Trade and the Origins of the Atlantic Slave Trade
The lure of African Trade also pushed Europeans to explore. Since the 12th century, Europeans have purchased west African gold, ivory, and slaves. Gold was an essential commodity because the precious metal from west Africa was Europe’s primary form of payment for Asian goods.
Fig. 3- A Map from 1614 showing the "African Gold Coast."
At the forefront of this was the Portuguese, who established trade ports along the west coast of Africa. Most Portuguese did not venture into the dense environment of sub-Saharan Africa, instead opting to trade with West African merchants. As the Age of Exploration continued to reap benefits for European nations and the rediscovery of North and South America, the need for labor in gold and silver mines and sugar and rice plantations increased the demand for enslaved labor. These Portuguese trading posts on the west African coast became the epicenter of the Atlantic slave trade.
Age of European Exploration (the 1400s to 1600s)
With these motivations, the Age of Exploration begins in Portugal. Still, many other European countries eventually began exploring as the lure of revenue, control, and prestige became apparent. Below is a table highlighting the timeline of European exploration, the countries involved, the explorers, and their “discoveries.”
European Exploration Timeline |
Country | Explorers | Voyages |
Portugal | Bartolomeu Dias | (1486-1488) Sails down Africa's west coast and round the Cape of Good Hope into the Indian Ocean. |
Vasco da Gama | (1497-1499) Rounds the Cape of Good Hope into the Indian Ocean, sails up the east coast of Africa establishes a route to India and returns to Portugal. |
Pedro Alvares Cabral | (1500 - 1501) Credited with the European discovery of Brazil in 1500, it embarks from Brazil to India. |
Spain | Christopher Columbus | (1492-1493) Credited for the European discovery of the “New World”, and conducted several voyages around the Caribbean and Central America. |
Hernan Cortez | (1519) Spanish conquistador credited with conquering the Aztec empire in present-day Mexico and claiming the territory for Spain. |
Francisco Pizarro | (1532-1533) Spanish conquistadors are credited with conquering the Incan empire and claiming much of western South America for Spain. |
Ferdinand Magellan (and Juan Elcano) | (1519-1522) He began a voyage to circumnavigate the planet. Magellan is killed during the journey, and Juan Elcano returns to Spain, having completed the journey with only 1 of 5 ships and 18 of 270 men surviving. |
England | John Cabot | (1497) Credited with the earliest exploration of North America, in three voyages, in present-day Newfoundland. |
Henry Hudson | (1607-1608, 1610) Hired by English merchants, Hudson conducted two expeditions of discovery under the English flag. The first was to find a northern passage to the Pacific Ocean, which led to his exploration of the eastern and north Canadian coasts and Greenland. |
France | Giovanni de Verrazzano | (1524) Credited as the first European to explore the east coast of North America from present-day Florida and New York. |
Netherlands (Dutch) | Henry Hudson | (1609) Between his voyages for England, the Dutch East India Company hired Hudson to sail north through the Arctic Ocean to connect with Asia; barred by Ice and his experience in the previous journey, Hudson decided to attempt to find a westward passage through North America. His voyage leads him to explore much of the mid-Atlantic region of the east coast of North America, from present-day Cape Cod to the Chesapeake Bay. |
European Exploration Map
The Map below charts the voyages of the Explorers listed in the table above. The color of their routes correlates with their sponsoring European Country.
Fig. 4- This Map shows the routes of several notable European explorers and the years of their voyages and explorations. Source: Map Created By Author.
Effects of European Exploration
The overall effects of European Exploration are numerous and have lasting repercussions throughout U.S. and World history, effects that are still being studied today. The table below highlights several effects that influenced the New and Old World.
Effects of European Exploration |
Effects on the New World | Effects on the Old World |
Spread of Old-World diseases to the indigenous populations The exchange, over time, of goods, crops, animals, and ideas between Europeans and the Indigenous people Introduction of the horse and other beasts of burden. Introduction of muskets, rifles, and gunpowder Collapse or conquer of significant civilizations such as the Aztecs and Inca Influence of European economic systems Spread of Christianity
| The exchange, over time, of goods, crops, animals, and ideas between Europeans and the Indigenous peoples Growing power and wealth among European Nations Increase in International Trade The beginnings of mercantilism and the Atlantic trade networks Competition between nations to control more colonies and increased militarism A growing need for raw materials Steady increase for enslaved labor as markets grew due to trade.
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European exploration - Key takeaways
- A series of events beginning with the black plague in the mid-1300s created a political, economic, and social climate in Europe that increased the need to explore new territories.
- The reasons for exploration were to search for new resources and fertile land, Control trade routes to Asia and the trade market and spread Christianity.
- Portugal was one of the first nations to invest in oceanic exploration, with Spain following close after England, France, and the Dutch.
- The Age of Exploration is one of the most transformative times in world history as the effects of exploration are numerous and immensely influential, such as the spread of diseases, the exchange of crops, animals, and ideas between nations and civilizations, and the growing wealth and competition between many European nations.
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