Final answer:
The primary reason the Spanish explored the eastern coast of North America and the western coast of South America was to find gold and other valuable resources.
Step-by-step explanation:
The primary reason the Spanish explored the eastern coast of North America and the western coast of South America was to find gold and other valuable resources.
The Spanish were inspired by tales of rivers of gold and the potential for immense wealth. They hoped to discover rich civilizations with abundant gold reserves, similar to what they had found in the settled civilizations of Latin America.
However, instead of finding the wealth they had hoped for, the Spanish explorers encountered small, disparate communities in North America and South America. These communities were already ravaged by European diseases brought by the Spanish, and their resources consisted mainly of land, timber, and furs.