Why explore?
Cause 1
Exploration was caused by curiosity about the world. I know that exploration mainly started because of Marco Polo's book, Wonders of the World because of all the content inside. Marco Polo was an Italian merchant traveler; he recorded his travels in a book that inspired Christopher Columbus to travel. That book was published and introduced European to central Asia and China. From that, people wanted more money, spices, and resources. I also had a question, like did they find what they were hoping to find? The answer to that is yes, they found new ways to trade like on the Silk Road. The Silk Road helped Europeans travel and trade to central Asia and China for new resources, more money from trading, and new spices.
Cause 2
Exploration was caused by finding a water route to Asia. When Europeans got closed from the silk road, they needed to find a new way to get to central Asia and China. They thought that the world was round, and it was, so they thought if they sail west they would eventually arrive around the world and land in Central Asia and China. Little did they know, they would come across North and South America. When Columbus set sail he landed in the Bahamas convinced that he arrived in the east Indies. That opened a new world of resources and people because they were in a new land that they have never come across before.
Effect 1
The effect of exploration was the new resources that they found. One of the most wanted resource was silk, and silk was in Asia. Marco Polo the merchant found a route that took them there and they named it, The Silk Road. There they found silk because they found a way to Asia, but eventually got closed out of the route. Columbus wanted to find a water route to get there faster, but the new route lead them to the Caribbean. In the Caribbean, they found many spices like sugar which was an important spice. Sugar could only be grown in the tropics because of the weather, so the entire island was converted into a sugar plantation. With the plantation of sugar, Europe king and queen got richer and the natives did not get anything out of it. Some of the natives there were captured for slavery and were taken to Europe and others were in their land being a slave.
Effect 2
The effect of exploration was slavery because they did all the work for the Europeans. When Columbus arrived at the new world he found sugar and new metals. He then enslaved a lot of the Native Americans that were already living on the land; he took some slaves back to Europe too. They soon traveled to Africa and that is when the Triangular Trade was introduced. The finished products went from Europe to Africa, then from Africa they brought slaves to the Americas. Finally all the work of the slaves were going to Europe. The slaves did all the work while the Europeans just sat back and got all the products and slaves.
Work Cited Page
Mrs. Lyon's PowerPoint Notes