Keep this little phrase in mind: <u>gold, glory, and God.</u> In that order. The reason the Catholic monarchs Isabella and Ferdinand sponsored Columbus was
<u>gold.</u> They wanted to get rich off of gold, which would enable them to increase their wealth and trading power as per the economic system of mercantilism.
<u>glory.</u> They wanted their names to be famous. Two of the islands that Columbus saw were named after the two rulers (Isabela Island and Fernandina).
<u>God.</u> They were highly Catholic (remember the Spanish Inquisition?) and they wanted to spread that, in theory, to the primitive natives.
The revolution which more directly captured the spirit of the Enlightenment was the French one. The French revolution was based on three basic principles: equality, freedom, brotherhood. These three principles were also things which depicted enlightenment as a period extremelly well.
