Huh's - Module 10 SQ 3 What motivated European exploration in the 15th and 16th centuries?
1. What did mercantilist governments believe would make a country the strongest?
2. Why would a mercantilist government be interested in other areas of the world?
3. How did this belief lead to or cause European exploration?
1. Mercantilist governments believed that a country's strength and wealth could be measured by its accumulation of precious metals, such as gold and silver.
2. A mercantilist government would be interested in other areas of the world because it believed that acquiring colonies and establishing global trade networks would allow it to gain control over valuable resources and increase its access to markets for its own products.
3. This belief in the importance of accumulating wealth and resources through global trade and colonization motivated European exploration. European countries, such as Portugal, Spain, England, and France, launched expeditions to other parts of the world in search of new trade routes, valuable commodities, and colonies to exploit. These explorations ultimately led to the discovery of new lands, exploitation of resources, and the establishment of extensive overseas empires.