Lesson 2.1

Explore 1 Con't

Multimedia Component

Click HERE to complete the TWO multimedia activities - you need to scroll all the way to the bottom to complete both.(Learn Alberta)

Europe During the Age of Discovery

Read about the perspectives and economic, social, and political ideas that influenced Europeans during the fifteenth century.

Motives Leading Europeans to Explore Beyond Their Lands

• the Renaissance ideals to learn, experience, observe, and understand other cultures

• the extension of the religious motivations of the twelfth- and thirteenth-century Crusades to further the expansion of Christianity in the world

• a belief that exploration and exploitation on the part of Europeans would acquire the luxuries, resources, gold, and silver that would rival the wealth of the kingdoms of the Far East

• a belief that Europe was primed to claim empires in lands yet to be conquered

Significance of the Roman Catholic Church

Across Europe and Asia, three major religions existed in 500 BCE: Christianity, Buddhism, and Hinduism. The religion of Europe in the eleventh century was primarily Roman Catholic. The Crusades of the eleventh to fourteenth centuries were in response to the growth of Islam.

The Roman Catholic Church was represented by members in the upper levels of feudal society. A village looked to the local priest for guidance at a time when very few could read the Bible. The pope and bishops of the Church held much power, land, and wealth. Catholicism was an accepted way of life up until the 1500s. It was the foundation of education, morality, and everyday life. To further spread the Roman Catholic faith, the Church endorsed many of the fifteenth-century expeditions such as those of Christopher Columbus and Bartholomew Diaz.