Explain what impelled European explorers to look west across the Atlantic.

The European conquest of America began as an offshoot of the quest for a sea route to India, china, and the islands of the East Indies, the source of the silk, tea, spices, porcelain, and other luxury goods. Profit and piety - the desire to eliminate Islamic middlemen and win control of trade for Christian western Europe - combined to inspire the quest for a direct route to Asia.