<P> The Age of Discovery, also known as the Age of Exploration, is one of the most important periods of geographical exploration in human history . It started in the early 15th century and lasted until the 17th century . In that period, Europeans discovered and / or explored vast areas of the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania . Portugal and Spain dominated the first stages of exploration, while other European nations followed, such as England, Netherlands, and France . </P> <P> The most important explorers of this period include: Diogo Cão (c. 1452--c. 1486) who discovered and ascended the Congo River and reached the coasts of the present - day Angola and Namibia; Bartolomeu Dias (c. 1450--1500), who was the first European to reach the Cape of Good Hope and other parts of the South African coast; Christopher Columbus (1451--1506), who led a Castilian (Spanish) expedition across the Atlantic, discovering America; Vasco da Gama (1460--1524), a navigator who made the first trip from Europe to India and back by the Cape of Good Hope, discovering the ocean route to the East; Pedro Alvares Cabral (c. 1467 / 68--c. 1520) who, following the path of Gama, claimed Brazil and led the first expedition that linked Europe, Africa, America, and Asia; Diogo Dias, who discovered the eastern coast of Madagascar and rounded the corner of Africa; explorers such as Diogo Fernandes Pereira and Pedro Mascarenhas (1470--1555), among others, who discovered and mapped the Mascarene Islands and other archipelagos; António de Abreu (c. 1480--c. 1514) and Francisco Serrão (14?--1521), who led the first direct European fleet into the Pacific Ocean (on its western edges), through the Sunda Islands, reaching the Moluccas; Juan Ponce de León (1474--1521), who discovered and mapped the coast of Florida; Vasco Núñez de Balboa (c. 1475--1519), who was the first European to view the Pacific Ocean from American shores (after crossing the Isthmus of Panama) confirming that America was a separate continent from Asia; Ferdinand Magellan (1480--1521), who was the first navigator to cross the Pacific Ocean, discovering the Strait of Magellan, the Tuamotus and Mariana Islands, achieving a nearly complete circumnavigation of the Earth, in multiple voyages, for the first time; Juan Sebastian Elcano (1476--1526), who completed the first global circumnavigation; Aleixo Garcia (14?--1527), who explored the territories of present - day southern Brazil, Paraguay and Bolivia, crossing the Chaco and reaching the Andes (near Sucre); Jorge de Menezes (c. 1498--?), who discovered Papua New Guinea; García Jofre de Loaísa (1490--1526), who discovered the Marshall Islands; Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca (1490--1558), who discovered the Mississippi River and was the first European to sail the Gulf of Mexico and cross Texas; Jacques Cartier (1491--1557), who drew the first maps of part of central and maritime Canada; Andres de Urdaneta (1498--1568), who discovered the maritime route from Asia to the Americas; Francisco Vázquez de Coronado (1510--1554), who discovered the Grand Canyon and the Colorado River; Francisco de Orellana (1511--1546), who was the first European to navigate the length of the Amazon River . </P> <P> Continuing in the second half of the 16th century and the 17th century with explorers such as Andrés de Urdaneta (1498--1568), who discovered the maritime route from Asia to the Americas; Álvaro de Mendaña (1542--1595), who discovered the Tuvalu archipelago, the Marquesas, the Solomon Islands and Wake Island; Willem Janszoon (1570--1630), who made the first recorded European landing in Australia; Pedro Fernandes de Queirós (1565--1614), who discovered the Pitcairn Islands and the Vanuatu archipelago; Yñigo Ortiz de Retez, who discovered and reached eastern and northern New Guinea; Luis Váez de Torres (1565--1613), who discovered the Torres Strait between Australia and New Guinea; Henry Hudson (156?--1611), who explored the Hudson Bay in Canada; Samuel de Champlain (1574--1635), who explored St. Lawrence River and the Great Lakes (in Canada and northern United States); Abel Tasman (1603--1659), who explored North Australia, discovered Tasmania and New Zealand; and René - Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle (1643--1687), who explored the Great Lakes region of the United States and Canada, and the entire length of the Mississippi River . </P> <P> Long after the golden age of discovery, other explorers completed the world map, such as various Russians explorers, reaching the Siberian Pacific coast and the Bering Strait, at the extreme edge of Asia and Alaska (North America); Vitus Bering (1681--1741) who in the service of the Russian Navy, explored the Bering Strait, the Bering Sea, the North American coast of Alaska, and some other northern areas of the Pacific Ocean; and James Cook, who explored the east coast of Australia, the Hawaiian Islands, and circumnavigated the Antarctic continent . </P>

Which of the following was not a reason for european exploration