European Exploration

Factors Leading to European Exploration During the thirteenth century, the Europeans’ interest in the New World began to form and explorations started to emerge. Europe was looking for a western water route leading to Asia. Specifically, the Spanish were in search of an economic incentive to travel such as gold. Nations were exploring to expand their political grounds and create political satellites across the globe. Since England was experiencing religious turmoil, English colonists were in pursuit of religious tolerance. While exploration of the New World was rocky for European immigrants, the journey began to supplement economic growth, political expansion, and social acceptance. In order for Europeans to trade with Asian countries

Spain was the most powerful countries in the world, therefore political expansion was necessary. Colonies founded by Spain were not independently governed because they had viceroys to govern New Spain and Peru. Another political factor of European exploration was the glory. England wanted to be better than Spain which led to their fight against the Spanish Armada in 1588 (31). England and Spain’s fighting indicates the intensity of the for more political ground. The French sought military potential in America to protect their settlements (41). The military potential in America was a factor in French

This example indicates that the northern colonies would not have a use for slaves like the southern colonies. Northern colonies prohibited slavery except for lawful captives (60). The north preferred white servants that were accustomed to their culture indicating these colonies did not want slavery. Indentured servants were cheaper than slaves so the north would rather pay for a white indentured servant (60). This demonstrates another factor as to why slavery did not become popular in the north. The existence of agriculture in the southern colonies led to the use of indentured servitude. Once most of the reachable American land had been settled and the English economy improved, indentured servants became more difficult to find. This situation ultimately led to the use of Africans as slaves in the southern colonies. The northern colonies did not have as many labor needs, making indentured servants more popular. Indentured servitude converted to slavery in the south with slavery almost nonexistent in the