The correct answer is A. Small but powerful nations sought more territory in order to compete with larger empires.
Explanation:
During the 15th to the 18th century, many European countries including England, France, Spain, and Portugal led different expeditions to discover new territories and trading routes all around the world which was known as the Age of Exploration. In all of these cases, the main motivation of countries was to find new territories and take advantage of the resources found on them and in this way become more powerful, expand their empires and dominate other European countries especially because most European countries were small but powerful and wanted to show this power. Therefore, the major cause of global exploration was "small but powerful nations sought more territory in order to compete with larger empires".
