What was the driving force behind europeans finding an oceanic route to asia?
1 Answer
Commerce and animosity with the Ottoman Empire.
Explanation:
Relations between the Ottoman Empire and western Europe had always been somewhat rocky.
Throughout the 14th and 15th centuries the Turks had gradually conquered much of Eastern Europe, taking Constantinople in 1453 and putting an end to the Eastern Roman Empire (known to us today as the Byzantine Empire).
By the end of the 15th Century the Ottomans ruled most of Eastern Europe, including Hungary, Slovakia, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, and the Balkan countries. Their seemingly unstoppable expansion was finally checked by their failure to take Vienna in 1529 and their defeat at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571.
During all this time the nations of western Europe had been trading for silks, spices, and other goods from China, India, and east Asia via the Silk Road, an overland route that now had to pass through Ottoman territory. Considering the Turks were not very friendly, this was a problem.
Consequently, beginning in the late 1300's the western nations constantly sought to find a way to get to India and east Asia by water, thereby bypassing and not having to deal with the Ottomans.
