Before Columbus discovered America, the Afro-Eurasian trading world was king. The Afro-Eurasian trading world was a trading system that linked Africa, Europe, and Asia in one trading community.
The center of the trading system was the Indian Ocean where ships from all three continents could send their goods to nations. The ocean also created a cultural crossing road where different religions and ethnicities mixed from other countries including China, India, as well as the Middle East, Africa, and Europe. Trade across the Indian Ocean only slowed when the Black Death occurred. However, this didn't last too long, and commerce continued to spread across the Indian Ocean and merchants continued to sell their goods to the other countries. One of the…show more content… How and why did Europeans undertake ambitious voyages of expansion?
Europe was the main continent responsible for discovering and colonizing the New World. Europeans undertook voyages of expansions by sending ships with people and supplies across the Atlantic Ocean to colonize the New World. Europeans wanted to expand its nation for four main reasons.
The first reason why Europeans decided to expand was that they wanted to find new materials and products. Many of their trade partners were not producing the products, such as crops and livestock that they desired. The second reason was that Europe was still trying to recover from the Black Death. To make a full recovery Europe needed more resources and materials. The third reason why Europe wanted to expand and explore was that of spices. Spices were introduced to the Europeans in the 12th century by the Crusaders, and the Europeans became obsessed with the flavors of the spices and craved more of them. This encouraged them to travel to other lands to find more spices to help boost their weakened economy. The fourth reason why Europe expanded was so that they could spread their religion to other nations and make their churches larger, especially the Christian
