Chapter 1 Essay Apush

The Europeans faced much adversity throughout their long history. When there was a chance to explore the New World they jumped at the opportunity. During this particular time period, exploration opened many opportunities and one of those included power, which motivated the kings of major countries to explore.The Europeans explored the New World in search of gold, glory, and to do it for God; in some cases. Gold was a major factor in bringing the Europeans to the New World. Gold equals money and money equals power, this is the philosophy of most kings to explore the New World. They wanted power and it did not matter how they got that power as long as they got it. In the case of Hernan Cortes, he killed of the Aztec leader, Montezuma, to gain the Aztec’s gold. After the fall of the civilized empires in the New World, the Spanish set up civilized empires which prospered in gold. The Spanish received gold and in turn they also received power. Power motivated most of the countries; Spain, France, England, Portugal, and the Netherlands, to explore and gain the profits. Although gold was not the only reason they explored as much as it was trying to find a new route to India and the Orient. That was the original plan. Once they hit land and discovered it was not India and the Orient, they explored and came across gold and many other riches. Once they were brought back the kings would charter ships and try to gain as much gold, money/power, as they could. After the fall of the Catholic Church and the rise of the monarchies, all of the kings were searching for new ways to show they were more powerful, gold helped with that. Gold was not only a surprising find in the New World, but also a key into the search for power by the kings of the respective countries that explored.

Glory was a major factor in bringing the Europeans to the New World. In European life, the oldest son got to inherit everything from the father, so that was the reason for the big craze of having a