Why did European countries compete to find trade routes to the indies

Explanation:

I think

The Republic of Venice had become a formidable power, and a key player in the Eastern spice trade.[24] Other powers, in an attempt to break the Venetian hold on spice trade, began to build up maritime capability.[1] Until the mid-15th century, trade with the east was achieved through the Silk Road, with the Byzantine Empire and the Italian city-states of Venice and Genoa acting as a middle man.

In 1453, however, the Ottoman Empire took control of the sole spice trade route that existed at the time after the fall of Constantinople, and were in a favorable position to charge hefty taxes on merchandise bound for the west. The Western Europeans,[which?] not wanting to be dependent on an expansionist, non-Christian power for the lucrative commerce with the east, set out to find an alternate sea route around Africa.[

lincoln declared that slavery should not be allowed to spread into the new states, and of course this angered the south at the time.

europe would not recognize the confederacy as an independent nation.