Answer:
The European societies the question is referring to, are late-medieval, and early-modern age European societies.
Step-by-step explanation:
These were societies where the medieval order: chivalry, prominance of religious thinking, and feudalism, was coming to an end, and the new, modern age order was developing: absolutist-monarchism, humanism, and mercantilism.
These European societies were affected, in terms of trade with Asia, by the conquest, of the totality of the Easterm Mediterranean, from the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Empire added more barriers to trade, which made if more difficult for Western European nations to engage in it.
For this reason, European nations began to promote exploration, also thanks to advances in shipping and navigation technology.
The first nations to do so were Portugal and Spain, followed, a century later, by Britain, France, and The Netherlands. This age of exploration led directly to the age of European Imperialism which would dominante ther world in the centuries that ensued.