Factors prompting exploration

• Expanding trade


  Trade was expanding quickly in the New World
• Reasons for English merchants to expand trade

  • War with Spain and in the Netherlands had severely damaged the wool and cloth trades
  • Need to find new markets and new products to sell
• Adventure


  Some young Elizabethan men, such as Francis Drake, undertook voyages of discovery and exploration
• Published accounts of voyages

  Though often inaccurate, persuaded others to venture into the unknown in the belief that treasure and riches could be found and fortunes made
• Private Investment


  • Private investors, including Elizabeth I and her courtiers, funded many of the voyages of discovery
  • Although it was risky, the rewards could be enormous
  • This increased the incomes of both the Crown and the nobility
• Improvements in ship design

  • Ships or galleons had bigger sails, were faster and more manoeuvrable, as well as possessing greater firepower to protect themselves from attack by pirates
  • They also were more stable and could take on more supplies, encouraging longer voyages and exploration
• Navigation technology


  • Nautical devices, such as quadrants and astrolabes, made voyages safer, direct and faster, leading to more exploration and trade
  • The development of standardised maps, such as the Mercator Map of 1569, gave sailors and traders greater confidence that they were going in the right direction, reducing risk and encouraging further voyages
• Goods traded in the triangular trade

  • Sugar
  • Spices
  • Hides
  • Pearls
  • Tobacco
  • Rum
  • Slaves
• Triangular trade


  • The trader and explorer John Hawkins discovered that iron goods and guns could be sold in West Africa to buy slaves, which could be sold in the New World in exchange for rum, spices and tobacco, which would then be sold in Europe
  • Other merchants and traders across England copied this lucrative triangular trade