How did Italy feel about exploration in the 1500s?
As one answer has sort of suggested, there WAS no “Italy” in the 1500s! The various “parts” were not united until the 19th century. Note that the voyages of exploration engaged in by Spain, Portugal, France, England… depended on their being LARGE, stable nation states — because of the large financial and military demands (to defend against OTHER nations) required to mount these efforts. Thus, the Italians, not having/being such a “nation-state” COULD not join or compete with Spain, etc. (When Italy WAS finally united in 1861, the new nation-state DID very quickly become invovled in colonization [from 1889-1941].) So it doesn’t make sense to suggest their failure to join in was about their being “pre-occupied”. BUT at the same time there WERE a number of Italian princes involved in TRADE, and who had become quite wealthy, involved in banking and so able to participate in some of the financing (and hence profits) of exploratory voyages. Indeed, Amerigo Vespucci was at one point an age
