1. Causes of and The World Prior to.
European Expansion
Causes of and The World Prior to.

2. European Expansion
The Causes: The 3 Gs
GOLD
GOD
GLORY

3. Gold and Natural Resources
In the 1400s, European countries were competing with each other for Natural Resources. They competed for natural resources such as gold, silk, and spices.
►Spices were especially valuable
►Many of these things could be found along the Silk Roads which span from Africa, The Middle East, India, to Asia.
► The Silk Roads were the first global trade network. Merchants exchanged goods, literature, knowledge, and ideas.
►European traders had to travel great distances over land to get these areas.
► Transporting goods across these great distances was costly and dangerous.

4. Gold and Natural Resources
► By the time the goods reached Europe they were sold at extremely high prices.
►European merchants knew that if they could trade directly with people in Asia, they would make enormous profits.
►In the 1400s, Europeans began searching for a sea route to Asia.
► At this time Europeans had no idea the Americas existed.

5. GOD
The Rise of Islam:
► Islam began in 622 CE and quickly spread throughout the world.
► It was spread by conquest and by Muslim merchants and traders along the Silk Roads.
► By 750 CE Islam had spread as far as India to the Iberian Peninsula.

6. GOD
► In1453 Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire falls to the Ottoman Empire.
► Some Europeans believed it was their duty to stop the rise of Islam and spread the Christianity throughout the world.
► They felt that they could convert the Native people they met on their journeys into Christians.

7. GLORY
► As Europeans began exploring the Coast of Africa, they began settling Colonies.
► Colonizing new areas added to a country’s territory (more natural resources, more wealth).
► Colonizing also opened new markets as Europeans could force people in their new colonies to purchase goods from them.
► European countries could sell things to the people in these areas and make even more money.

8. GLORY
► The more colonies a country had, the more wealth it had. They could take gold and other natural resources from the areas they colonized.
► More colonies meant more prestige or Glory
► Countries began competing with one another for colonies
► When one Country takes over another it is called Imperialism

9. What country started the age of Expansion?

10. Prince Henry the Navigator:
►Portugal
►Prince Henry the Navigator of Portugal began the age of European exploration
► Prince Henry began Portugal’s exploration of Africa in the mid 1400s.
► He hired sailors who explored the coast of Africa and opened the way for future journeys.
► Henry also opened a school of Navigation in Portugal.
► He wanted shipbuilders, mapmakers, sea captains, and inventors to learn and work together.

11. What about the Americas?

12. The Americas
The main theory of the first Americans. Maps of the probable travel routes.

13. The Americas Population: Subject continues to be debated.
Most scholars and historians estimate the population of the Americas was between 50 to more than100 million people prior to European contact.
This population would be destroyed by European contact.

14. The Americas
►At this point in history Europeans did not yet know that the Americas existed although many people believed the world was round.
► Explorers began to try sailing to Asia by going east, expecting to eventually reach Asia by circling the globe.
► The Americas were “stumbled upon” as Europeans searched for this new route to Asia.
►For the next 200 years, Europe’s largest countries began exploring Africa, Asia, and North America.
►They set up colonies and new markets, took gold and other precious metals, enslaved native people, and spread Christianity.
Map of the world 1200 CE