The Most Significant Part Of The Age Of Exploration

Throughout history, civilizations and nations have relentlessly competed to surpass one another. This is evident in the Age of Exploration in which explorers, such as Christopher Columbus, Vasco da Gama, Bartolomeu Dias, Prince Henry the Navigator, among many others, explored new lands and established overseas colonies for their respective mother countries. In these colonies, the Europeans converted the natives to Christianity, searched for gold and precious metals, and brought fame and glory to their countries. The goals of “God, gold, and glory” became a significant part of the Age of Exploration. Although the “three G’s” stimulated competition across the European states, the underlying push was by the Ottomans. The goals of the Europeans

The Spanish and Portuguese had been exploring the new world far before the fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans, but the pressure of the newly rising empire pushed the idea of the “Three G’s” furthermore. The Ottomans conquered Constantinople in 1453, renaming the city Istanbul. Because of the convenient location of the city, the Ottomans now had control over the Silk Roads. They took advantage of this and forced the European nations to pay high taxes for Asian luxury goods. The unfair taxing of the nations led to the desire to “cut out the middleman” and trade directly with the Far East. As mentioned before, Vasco da Gama established trading ports along the East African coast to participate in trade in the Indian Ocean Basin, in efforts to avoid the Arabs. Like da Gama, Columbus set sail to find direct trade routes with India; in Columbus’s efforts to find India, he miscalculated and landed in the Bahamas, unintentionally opening another door for colonization. Nonetheless, these events would not have happened if it were not for the

The Ottoman Empire was a “Gunpowder Empire,” like the Safavid in the Persia and the Mughal in India. These empires had gunpowder technology, such as cannons and muskets which helped significantly with their successes. The soldiers were incredibly disciplined and strong, unlike the European soldiers as stated in a letter from Ogier Ghislain de Busbecq to King Ferdinand of Hungary and Bohemia. The Ottomans had elite janissary corps attending to the Sultan and the soldiers spared their supplies when experiencing difficulties. The soldiers were full of “patience, sobriety, Whenever the There was a fear that the Ottomans would conquer the Europeans as they did the