World History

Task 1

DBQ: Age of Exploration

What motivated Europeans during the Age of Exploration?
Doc A As I know you will be rejoiced at the glorious success that our Lord has given me in my voyage, I write this to tell you how in thirty-three days I sailed to the Indies with the fleet that the illustrious King and Queen, our Sovereigns, gave me, where I discovered a great many islands, inhabited by numberless people; and of all I have taken possession for their Highnesses by proclamation and display of the Royal Standard without opposition. 1493, Letter from Columbus to the King of Spain
Source: Charles W. Eliot, ed., American Historical Documents, 1000-1904 (New York, 1910), pp. 22-28.

Doc B As Captain Diego de Ordas and the other soldiers already named by me, arrived with samples of gold and the report that all the land was rich, Corts, by the advice of Ordas and the other Captains and soldiers, decided to speak to, and demand of Moctezuma, that all the Caciques and towns of the land should pay tribute to His Majesty, and that he himself as the greatest Chieftain, should also contribute from his treasure. Moctezuma replied that he would send to all his towns to ask for gold, but that many of them did not possess any, only some jewels of little value, which they had inherited from their ancestors.
Source: sahagn, Fray Bernardino de. Historia general de las cosas de Nueva Espaa. Edited by Francisco del Paso y Troncoso. 4 vols. Madrid: Fototipia de Hauser y Menet, 1905.

Doc C

Spanish Missionaries converting the Native population