Which motivation helped drive Columbus’s pursuit of a westward sea route from Europe to Asia?


A)the need to find a northwest passage to the Pacific*****

B)the impassable mountains and desert along the eastward land route

C)the interest in exploring new continents to the west

D)the desire to find a sea route to Asia before the Portuguese

The answer is "the desire to find a sea route to asia before the portuguese"

i cant seem to find it in my text book and I have looked for over 30 mins

Ty Write Teacher I appreciate both your help

To determine which motivation helped drive Columbus's pursuit of a westward sea route from Europe to Asia, we need to carefully examine each option and eliminate the incorrect ones.

A) the need to find a northwest passage to the Pacific: This motivation is not attributed to Columbus. The search for a northwest passage was primarily driven by later explorers, such as John Cabot and Henry Hudson.

B) the impassable mountains and desert along the eastward land route: This option might have been a factor, as the overland routes to Asia faced difficult terrain. However, there is no concrete evidence that this was a significant motivation for Columbus.

C) the interest in exploring new continents to the west: While Columbus's discovery of new continents played a role in his pursuit, it wasn't the primary motivation as he believed he was reaching Asia.

D) the desire to find a sea route to Asia before the Portuguese: This is the correct answer. Columbus was driven by the desire to find a sea route to Asia that bypassed the monopolistic control of the Portuguese over the existing maritime trade routes. He sought to establish direct trade links to Asia, bypassing the Portuguese, which would bring great economic and strategic benefits to himself and Spain.

Therefore, the correct answer is D) the desire to find a sea route to Asia before the Portuguese.

The Europeans didn't know there were continents west of Europe and east of Asia. The explorers believed they'd reach Asia by sailing west of Europe.

Just remember -- exploration, wars, etc. -- nearly everything governments do is for money and power. Columbus didn't go sailing west just to prove someone's philosophical point, and the Spanish king and queen didn't finance his journey out of the goodness of their hearts! They believed (or maybe they were gambling!) that there would eventually be great financial gain.

A is not right.

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