God, Gold and Glory: The Age of Exploration
The decline of the Mongol Empire in the fifteenth century, as well as the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks in 1453 was a major block to trade, making goods from the East harder to get and far more expensive. Actually, it seems the whole of the Age of Exploration was at least in part inspired by the Europeans’ dealings with the East. After Europe’s defeat by the Muslims for the Holy Land, the people began to question the ideas of the Church. This bout of questioning eventually led up to a period in European history known as the Renaissance—a word that stems from the Latin for “rebirth.” The exploration of new ideas which accentuated the Renaissance eventually led to the exploration of new lands and ways of doing things. With the feudal system having fallen away to monarchies, competition for wealth and prestige erupted across Europe. These newfound beliefs about God, gold and glory became the prime motives of the Age of Discovery.
The Renaissance began in the 1300s, creating a great revival of learning that swept through Europe, and increased the number of people outside the clergy and monasteries getting educated—and thus having the ability to read the Holy Scriptures in their original written languages (Hebrew and Greek).
Now that “ordinary” people had the ability to see just how much the Church had changed through the centuries, religion no longer gave the papacy a superhuman characteristic. But it wasn’t until the early sixteenth century when a German theology professor named Martin Luther began to see just how against the scriptures that the practices of the Church had become. He called for a reformation of the Church—an idea that grew like wildfire within the peasantry because of how easily accessed Luther’s teachings was for the poor. The wavering faith that the common people had with the clergy greatly favored Luther’s Reformation, allowing him to exploit the widespread anti-clericalism of the German people. With the establishment of the first Reformation (Protestant) church in Germany, the movements began to spread to other parts of Europe so that by the time that the “New World” was discovered, the Catholic Church was desperate to remain the universalized religion. Religion was a means of control. The more people that were controlled by a religion, the more power said religion had, and thus had a greater chance at dominance. Europeans also believed that they could save souls through the salvation found in Christianity and that it was their duty to spread the word of God (as given evidence by the Crusades).
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Where are you on a typical Sunday morning at 10:00 a.m.? In the bed, on the lake, at the golf course? Maybe just sitting at home? Or are you in God's house? I was born on May 12th 1984 and I have been to church every Sunday since then. I go to church because I wish to go. Church is the best place to go. People think church is a waste of time, but personally I believe that if it wasn't for God some ...
Missionaries—people sent to spread religion in another land—had hoped to convert the Native Americans to Christianity. The Church had used the conversion of the natives as one motive to explore the unknown world. The spread of Christianity became a partial justification and major factor of the exploration of the Europeans.
But conversion of the natives and spread of Christianity was but one of motives during the Age of Discovery. Perhaps the main motivation—the reason that the “New World” was discovered to start with—was gold, but not just in the literal sense. Europeans were desperate to keep trading for silks and especially spices with Asia, but traders had to travel the Silk Road—which was not only very long, but dangerous and often blocked by wars between those in the East. Because the Silk Road was often closed due to wars, European rulers began to finance explorations to find a sea route to Asia so that they could get the goods more easily and for less expense. Prince Henry the Navigator of Portugal founded a school of navigation and financed the first voyages down the west coast of Africa. Progress was slow, but after Dias and his crew made it to the Cape of Good Hope, da Gama and his crew became the first to sail around Africa and to India (da Gama’s voyage to India made him approximately a 3000% profit).
The Essay on Gold, God or Glory?
You’ve just gotten out of prison after doing three years for taking part in burning a heretic. You’re not married, you have no kids and you don’t have too much going on for you right now. The minute you get out, you’re best friend is right there waiting for you. He’s got the let’s do something insane face you’ve grown to hate. You don’t know what he’s going to ask you but you know it’s crazy. He ...
It was around this time that the idea of mercantilism—the idea that there is only so much wealth in the world, and to be the strongest you have to have more wealth than anybody else—emerged. Having seen the success of the Portuguese, Spain began looking for an even faster route to Asia. Columbus was just one of many explorers financed by the Spanish monarchy, and although he didn’t actually find India, his unintentional discovery led to substantial profit. Columbus had found some gold where he had landed on Hispaniola, but future Conquistadors found even more. They conquistadors found immense amounts of gold and silver, as well as complex civilizations that rivaled those in Europe. But like Columbus, their drive to gather riches enslaved and decimated the natives. But although the natives had been nearly wiped out, Spain’s success in the “New World” created a sort of frenzy between the rest of the European nations to get to this new land and find unimaginable amounts of gold and other goods that could contribute to their wealth. The greed for gold and wealth was no doubt the prime motivation during the Age of Exploration.
Just like the newfound power that gold and wealth in the idea of mercantilism that had spread over Europe, glory was also a relatively new idea to come out of the Renaissance. During the Renaissance, scholars paid great attention to the study of humanities and were inspired by the ancient Greeks and Romans, erecting these ancient peoples as a sort of role model. These scholars were known as Humanists. Humanist revolutionized a way of thinking that led to new ideas and values on education and personal achievement. They focused on individual achievement and with the growing popularity of the printing press gaining fame for one’s actions was even more possible. It was also the same with kings and their kingdoms. The more land and wealth that a country had, the better chance they had at dominating Europe. Glory was also much like the motivation of gold. There was a lot of prestige to be had with the founding of a new settlement or discovering a new way to achieve wealth, and so many explorers, kings and countries tried to “out-glory” one another.
The Essay on The Five Basics for Mining Group Gold
Mining Group Gold is a meeting management and a team process geared towards improving the quality of group interaction skills in any organizational meetings. This unique process is designed to aid the managers promote and get ideas, experience and wisdom of the people he works with. Mining Group Gold has five basics. First basic is determining the purpose of the meeting which includes the actual ...
In conclusion, there were many factors that inspired the Age of Discovery from the Renaissance to the Reformation, as well as the wars between those in the East, but the prime motivators were God, glory and gold. Europeans had always seen spreading Christianity as a good thing. Also, having control of the trade route meant having the most wealth, prestige and dominance. But the Age of Exploration was more than just its slogan of motivations “God, gold and glory,” it was a time where we progressed into what has become the modern world.
