what factors motivated european colonialism and empire-building?

Answer 1

The quest for natural resources including gold and silver. In some countries like Britain, the colonies formed a forced market for British-made goods and resources. That is what led to Gandhi's famous march to the sea to protest the ban against the Indians making their own salt. In Africa, there were not only rich natural resources to plunder, but also human trafficking in slavery to provide labor for the New World plantations.

Answer 2

First, European countries before didn't know how to preserve food and they can't find a way to store it.The story started because of the Spices which were rich in Asia particularly in Moluccas or the Spice Island. How did they know this island? It is because of Marco Polo's journey in Asia. When the time he came back to Europe, he told the story of his journey in Asia and because of that he published his book namely IL MILIONE. After that, that was the start of European invasion and Portugal was the first to sail and they found India and thought that it was the spice island that they were looking for. After that they started to colonized other countries as well. Then other European countries such as Spain, Netherlands, France, Russia and Great Britain also joined the contest of exploration to find new island that they will colonize.

Its not just about Spices that led them to conquer other countries but also:

1.God - they wanted to spread their religion or Christianity.

2.Gold- Asia is full of treasures and magnificent wonders so surely they would look for gold and precious stones and the price of Spice when they sell it to their country is much more expensive than the price where they bought it.

3. Glory- Every european countries conquered every island that they would get to have the title of being the most powerful country in the whole world. It is called Merkantilism.

Answer 3

Um. I know European expansion and the discovery of the Americas was motivated by partially curiousity... Portugal and Spain wanted to get to the rich Indian Ocean trade... but that doesn't really answer your question. Sorry. xD

Answer 4

Wealth and power, remembering that they are facets of the same thing. In short, money drove the whole process, more cheap labor, more cheap resources, more captive markets, more money for the national economy, more money, power and prestige for the nation.