Explain the economic, religious, and technological reasons that drove European exploration in the late 1400s and 1500s, including the search for a sea route to Asia.
By the late 1400s, Europeans wanted Asian goods badly -- spices such as pepper and cinnamon, silk, and porcelain -- but the overland trade routes ran through lands controlled by the Ottoman Empire, which charged heavy tolls along the way. By the time these goods reached European markets, they were extremely expensive. European rulers began searching for a new way to reach Asia directly by sea, cutting out the middlemen along the old land routes entirely.
Historians often summarize the explorers' motives as "God, Gold, and Glory": Gold meant profit from trade and resources; God meant spreading Christianity to new lands; and Glory meant fame and power for the explorer and the country that sponsored the voyage. New tools made long ocean voyages possible for the first time: the caravel, a fast and maneuverable ship, along with the compass and the astrolabe, which helped sailors navigate far from any coastline. Portugal led the way -- Prince Henry the Navigator sponsored voyages down the coast of Africa, and in 1488 the Portuguese captain Bartolomeu Dias rounded the southern tip of Africa. Ten years later, in 1498, Vasco da Gama sailed all the way around Africa to reach India, proving a sea route to Asia was possible.
Mastery looks like: They can name the three exploration motives and explain why Europeans wanted a sea route to Asia.
Common stumbles: Thinking explorers had only one single motive; confusing the overland route's problem (cost) with the ocean route's solution (a new path, not just a faster one).