What inspired Europeans to begin exploring foreign lands in the 1400's? Defend your answer

Hello! Some of the reasons Europeans began exploring foreign lands were to expand their territory, to find valuable goods, and for religious purposes. However, even with those reasons, the thing that inspired them to explore foreign lands in the 1400's was that they wanted to find a quicker route to Asia. There were plenty of ideas thought of to get there quicker and explorers were paid for their expeditions. One way was to sail west and when they did, they would be in Asia, and they thought that would be quicker than sailing around Africa. They couldn't travel through land, because that was too expensive for them.