1. Factors That Encouraged Exploration
Bardin

2. Europeans Seek Greater Wealth
merchants and traders hoped to benefit from the trade of spices and other luxury goods from Asia
people of Europe had been introduced to these items during the Crusades, the wars fought between Christians and Muslims from 1096 to 1270
After the Crusades ended, Europeans still demanded such spices as nutmeg, ginger, cinnamon, etc.

3. What were the Crusades?
a series of wars fought between European Christians and Muslims over the possession of Jerusalem (the Holy Land)

4. Seek New Trade Routes
the Muslims and Italians controlled the trade of goods
Muslims sold Asian goods to Italian merchants
the Italian merchants resold the goods at a higher price to merchants throughout Europe
by the 1400s, European merchants sought to find a sea route directly to Asia

5. The Spread of Christianity
Europeans believed they had a duty to convert non-Christians throughout the world

6. Technological Advances
During the 1200s, it would have been nearly impossible for sailors to cross the ocean and return again because European ships could not sail against the wind
1400s-shipbuilders designed the caravel
astrolabe-helped sailors determine their position using the sun and stars

7. Caravel
Columbus’s caravel

8. The Renaissance “rebirth” of classical works and learning
1. The Greeks had praised human achievement. European scholars developed humanism (study of human value & ideas)
2. Classical education stressed such subjects as history, philosophy, & literature.
3. From classical art, Renaissance artists learned to make art more realistic. Some of the finest paintings & statues come from this.
4.Muslim scholars saved classical manuscripts about science.

9. Reformation-1517 Martin Luther German monk
penned a document attacking the Catholic Church called the “95 Theses”
said that the Bible is the ultimate authority and that humans may reach salvation only by their faith and not by their deeds
sparked the Protestant Reformation
Catholic Church was divided after this