Europeans explored for several key reasons: 1) Spices were highly valued but could only be obtained from Asia, so European rulers sought a sea route to access spices more cheaply and make their countries wealthy. 2) Gold represented wealth and power, and explorers hoped to find gold in new lands to enrich their home nations. 3) Powerful monarchs like the Kings of Spain and Portugal wanted to expand their empires across new territories for resources and slave labor to increase their dominance.

1. Reasons for Exploration

2. What motivated the explorers to explore?

3. Spices In the 1400s, there was no refrigeration. To prevent meat from spoiling, people drowned their meat in salt to preserve and dry it (like beef jerky). They also used a lot of spices like pepper to cover up the taste of the salted or spoiled meat.

4. Spices Unfortunately for Europeans, these spices did not grow anywhere in Europe. They were only found in Asian countries. It was very difficult to get the spices from Asia to Europe over land so spices became very expensive.

5. SpicesSeveral European rulers finally decided to try to find a new route-a sea route. If a country could find a way to get these valuable spices to Europe, the rulers would be very rich.

6. What you need to know about SpicesEuropeans needed a sea route to get spices cheaper.

7. Gold Gold was a hot item that explorers were looking for, but remember that it is really wealth, not just literal gold that explorers were after.

8. What you need to know about goldGold would bring wealth and power to whatever country found it.

9. Larger Empires Some European rulers, especially the King of Spain and the King of Portugal, wanted to claim as much land as they could. They wanted to take all of the natural resources from the new land and use the people that lived there as slaves to do their work.

10. What you need to know about larger empiresCountries would do anything to expand their empire to new places. Larger empire = More power

11. Spread Christianity In the late 1400s, there was only one religion in Europe, Christianity. The European rulers were very religious. They wanted to convert everyone to Christianity.

12. What you need to know about spread ChristianityEuropeans wanted to spread Christianity to the new places they explored.

13. The 3 Gs Gold God Glory