What is a brief explanation of the rationale for the Spanish voyages to the New World?
956483
They looked for a new comercial route to Asia, In fact the first time they reach America. They thought that they have been reach Asia turning the earth to west but what they had been found was a new territory. When they traveled along the old comercial routes from the East, from  Asia, carrying goods.They had to pay taxes on the borders of all countries they crossed. So they thought it would be a good idea travel to west to reach Asia.
375300
Asian peoples who later formed the native american tribes were the first.  hundreds of years later the vikings (anglo saxons) also arrived to explore the Americas.  Hundreds of years after that in 1492, A spanish Explorer Christopher Columbus, was paid by the Queen of Portugal to find a new route to India.  He choose to sail west rather than east and landed in what is now South America.  He then went on to India.  After Columbus returned to Portugal, he reported what he found to the Queen.  After the news of his adventures spread Spain and Portugal both began sending expiditions to the Americas and formed a few colonies in South and Central America.  \n\nIn the late 16th Century, France and Britain were exploring North America and Britain formed the James town settlement.  The first British Colony in the Americas.  France was also sending convicts to work the land in eastern Canada.  \n\nDuring the 17th century, many British and a few Dutch groups came to the New World for religious freedom.  By the early 18th century young British men were braving the new world in hopes of making their fortunes and some adventurous intellectuals also made the journey.  \n\nIt was not until the 19th century that significant numbers of non-Brits (Eastern Europeans, Italians, Germans, etc.) came to the United States.
771737
Spanish had already taken warmer climates\n\nPrevailing winds and currents brought the English to what is now Canada and the USA\n\nTemperate climate agreed with the English
113941
Well, the first reason was French Revolution. When the notice came to America most people said that it´s time to establish those principles in Latin America.\n\nAnd later, the Napoleon´s conquest of Spain.
327927
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_armada
937146
"Discovery" is the key word.  The voyages of the age of discovery increased knowledge, brought new products, introduced cultures, opened new markets, etc.  New challenges brought changes in maritime technology - improved navigation, shipping, and associated crafts.  The expense - and potential rewards- of these complex ventures helped to spur the growth of corporate entities (there is a name for them - joint stock companies, I think, but check that for accuracy) that helped spread risk.  Insurance, too.  The huge increase in money brought about by the discovery of gold and silver in Mexico and Peru lead to major economic growth in Europe, which in turn allowed more exploration.
442142
500 years ago would be 1506 AD\n\nconsider \n*who would be paying for the exploration, \n*how he would carry or get money\n*where he would be starting from\n*where he would be going\n*his mode of transport (on foot, by horse, sailing ship etc)\n*his instruments of exploration (compass, star charts etc)\n*food and drink \n*length of voyage (years?) \n*disease and hardships\n*what he would be interested in finding (gold, silver or valuable commodities for trade)\n*what sort of people he would meet\n\nuse your imagination and make it up. \n\nexample\ntuesday 1st may 1506 in the year of our lord\nThe ships are still becalmed off the coast of a wild godforsaken country, many of the crew are sick from a strange disease. I tried to buy fresh water but the natives laughed at my gold coins and we were forced to return to our boats at arrowpoint. I saw many natives wearing pearls as big as hens eggs, but we have nothing to give them in exchange. the king will be very cross if we return empty handed. fish and rum again for lunch, yuk.
167697
Vasco Núñez de Balboa - Sep 25, 1513.\n\nVasco Núñez de Balboa (c. 1475, born in Jerez de los Caballeros or in Badajoz, Extremadura, Castile, Spain – January 21, 1519, in Acla, near Darién, Panama) was a Spanish conquistador who founded the colony of Darién in Panama, the oldest still-existing European settlement in the mainland of the Americas. He was the first European to see the Pacific Ocean from America (Sep 25, 1513).\n\nHearing rumours of a sea...\n...He heard of a great sea on the other side of the mountains and of a land of great wealth called Birú (later named Perú), turning out to be the Tahuantinsuyu (the Inca Empire) to the south of this sea...\n\nOn September 1, 1513, he sailed to San Blas (the narrowest part of the isthmus), and went south across the isthmus. As before he befriended the locals who were so inclined, and captured, tortured and looted those that remained hostile, thus gaining substantial treasure. Finally he reached a top from where he could see the Pacific Ocean on September 25, 1513. When the others had joined him a Te Deum was chanted, a cross erected, and the sea was christened Mar del Sur ("South Sea"). He pushed on to the edge of the ocean, in the Gulf of San Miguel and Balboa claimed the ocean and all adjacent lands for Spain.\n\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasco_N%C3%BA%C3%B1ez_de_Balboa
1104410
Ok sweetie, first of all ignore the ignorants, they are partially right but they still don't know how to answer the question. Ok here we go.\n\nAmerigo Vespucci or Américo Vespucio in spanish (see the relationship?) was an italian explorer that in 1501 arrived in what now is Guyana (North of "South" América) he sailed through the Amazona River and ended up in Patagonia (The very south of the American Continent).\n\nAmérico was the first European that realized that this was a new CONTINENT instead of Asia (What they thought at the begining, that's why we call our natives Indians because that was the destination of Columbus). The news spreaded rapidly over Europe and in 1507 a publication of a map made by the German Martin Waldseemüller using the description given by amerigo (Américo) showed the new land name as AMERICUS (In Latin) or América (Spanish because Americo was with the Spanish explorers) in honor of Americo.\n\nThe actual concept of América is the name of what people call North Central and South America which at the end and technically AND CORRECTLY speaking is the name of the whole land that starts in Canada and ends in Argentina. Back then, and, some countries now call americans refering to all people of the new continent (Not only the USA).\n\nNow in the USA, This country was called in honor to that name and also was the first country that became independent from a European authority.\n\nBeing called United States of America means States unified in a land called America which means in some kind of selfish and honorable way that the name of USA is America.\n\nThe only thing I ask you to do is please know and spread the word because there's people that really don't know how they became what they are, and yes, you can and should refer to American or americans to all people in the new continent and the nationality of the USA citizens, but you have to explain when you mean which one. To finish my answer is that everybody that know the difference and knows how to explain it is right and everybody in this WHOLE CONTINENT is an AMERICAN, the north, central and south definitions came after.\n\nThanks for letting me finally explain this to everybody. It took me a long time to figure the why's and the how's (I was born in the USA but raised in Venezuela so it helped expand my mind and knowledge).\n\nTootles
19546
There were millions of people living in the Americas when Christopher Columbus arrived in 1492. Columbus's voyage to what Europeans called the "New World" set the stage for the later European colonization of the Americas, with millions of emigrants (willing and unwilling) from the "Old World" eventually resettling in the Americas. While the population of Old World peoples in the Americas steadily grew in the centuries after Columbus, the population of the American indigenous peoples plummeted. The extent and causes of this population decline have long been the subject of controversy and debate, which became particularly widespread in 1992 during the 500th anniversary of Columbus's famous voyage, with a number of people claiming that the natives of the Americas have been the victims of genocide.\n\nEstimates of how many people were living in the Americas when Columbus arrived have varied tremendously; in the 20th century scholarly estimates ranged from a low of 8.4 million to a high of 112.5 million persons. Given the fragmentary nature of the evidence, precise pre-Columbian population figures are impossible to obtain; estimates are often produced by extrapolation from comparatively small bits of data. In 1976, geographer William Denevan used various estimates to derive a "consensus count" of about 54 million people, although some recent estimates are lower than that.\n\nHistorian David Henige, representing a minority opinion, has argued that many population figures are the result of arbitrary formulas selectively applied to numbers from unreliable historical sources. He believes there is not enough solid evidence to produce population numbers that have any real meaning, and characterizes the modern trend of high estimates as "pseudo-scientific number-crunching."\n\nThis population debate has often had ideological underpinnings. Low estimates were sometimes reflective of European notions of their own cultural and racial superiority, as historian Francis Jennings has argued: "Scholarly wisdom long held that Indians were so inferior in mind and works that they could not possibly have created or sustained large populations." At the other end of the spectrum, some have argued that contemporary estimates of a high pre-Columbian indigenous population are rooted in a bias against aspects of Western civilization and/or Christianity. Robert Royal writes that "estimates of pre-Columbian population figures have become heavily politicized with scholars who are particularly critical of Europe often favoring wildly higher figures."\n\nSince civilizations rose and fell in the Americas before Columbus arrived, the indigenous population in 1492 was not necessarily at a high point, and may have already been in decline. Indigenous populations in most areas of the Americas reached a nadir by the early twentieth century, and in a number of cases started to climb again.
83349
columbus sailed west to the indies instead of going around africa because he thought it would be faster. most people those days believed the world was flat, but columbus thought the world was round. he went west, but ended up in north america, but he didn't know that. he called the people he saw there indians because he believed he was in the indies.
946188
The Spanish,they also used it as a symbol for conquest,which in their eyes made it alright to steal the riches of New World,and also slaughtered or enslave the natives
713882
They were meant to trade, transport goods, and bring people over from the other places of the world.
780352
Why spain take land from moracow?\n0
851150
God, Gold and Glory sum up the Age of Discovery which begins in the 15th!!!! Century  (seriously.  Remember Christopher Columbus? The guy that set out for Asia but actually only made it to the West Indies? During the 15th Century?)\n\nGod - to spread Christianity to what they believed were 'pagan' nations of Muslims, \nGold - they wanted money from silk and spice trades and \nGlory - they wanted to become famous.
340662
present a timeline of mexican colonization by europeans
279053
Same reason they settled in other colonies: opportunity!!  Opportunity to worship, to self-governance, to create something, to start over, for an adventure!