Why did Spanish and Portuguese leaders seek out oceanic routes for trade?

Why did Spanish and Portuguese leaders seek out oceanic routes for trade with the East in the fifteenth century? ... Spanish men were given land and labor in the Americas.

"a shortage of traditional labor created new opportunities in the workplace. a major cause of the internment of japanese americans during world war ii was. racial prejudice. in the early 1940's, the "destroyers-for-military-bases deal" with great britain and the lend-lease act were evidence that the united states."