Question

How did the Crusades and the Renaissance encourage the age of exploration?

Answer 1

The Crusades initiated trade and curiosity about the East, while the Renaissance's focus on education and technology improved navigation, both of which drove the Age of Exploration.

Step-by-step explanation:

The Crusades and the Renaissance played significant roles in encouraging the Age of Exploration. The Crusades, which lasted from 1096 to 1291, not only stimulated trade but also brought back tales and goods from the East that sparked curiosity and a desire for further exploration. Additionally, the fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans was crucial, as it disrupted traditional land routes to Asia, prompting Europeans to seek new sea routes.

Moreover, the Renaissance was a period of educational and technological advances, leading to improvements in navigational tools that benefitted seafaring explorers. This time of renewal in Europe witnessed increased patronage in arts and sciences, with wealthy Italian merchants and European monarchs desiring to capitalize on trade opportunities and expand their influence globally.

Overall, these two periods in history combined economic motives with technological innovations, a lust for adventure, and the desire to spread Christianity, launching an era that would lead to unprecedented global connections and exchanges.

Answer 2

The crusades required many men from Europe to travel great distances to the Middle East, which in turn showed them many new things they likely had never seen before in their native land. These encounters with the middle easterners gave way to new ideas and inventions through interaction with the people there. These new ideas were likely brought back to Europe and were present during the Renaissance. The Renaissance was a time of new exploration in the world, as the Europeans wanted to gather every bit of knowledge and culture from different corners of the earth in order to improve their own society. Spices, gunpowder, art, weapons, you name it all came from different areas of the world and in Europe they took advantage of the new knowledge as best they could.