Western Civilization I / Unit 16 WC1 1502 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Why Sail West or South: Spices, Gold, Crusade
Captions available
The idea
Europeans wanted a direct route to Asian spices and silk around Muslim and Venetian middlemen, and gold. The Reconquest's crusading habit went to sea with them, the anchor says: profit and religion together, as in unit 11.
In practice
The frame of middlemen is the anchor's; historians revise it.
Where people slip
Neither motive explains the voyages alone.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
Builds on
Something wrong in this lesson? Flag it