Even though you said, "I gotta do this today" (and it's not that day any longer), let's explore this question for the sake of others who may see it later.
The Europeans were all about exploration for various reasons. Primary source documents about Portugal's Prince Henry (called "The Navigator" because he sponsored sea voyages) are a good example of reasons Europeans cited. Henry's reasons were:
1. Curiosity -- nobody had ever explored further down the coast of Africa before his sponsored voyages did.
2. Commerce -- he wanted to discover possible trading partners in Africa.
3. Reconnaissance -- he wanted to find out how far into Africa the power of the Muslims extended. (The Muslims were seen as enemies of Christian Europe.)
4. Finding fellow Christians -- there was a legend that there was some great Christian prince yet in Africa from back in the days before Muslim conquests of North Africa.
5. Conversions -- the Portuguese Catholics thought they could gain favor with God by converting non-Christians peoples to the Catholic faith.
6. Destiny -- ultimately, Prince Henry thought it was in his stars to be the leadership force behind a great project like the exploration of Africa.
In going into Africa, things didn't turn out as rosy as Prince Henry's plans made their intentions sound. (Same story for other European nations that got involved.) Tribes at war with one another in Africa would sell prisoners of war to the Europeans as slaves. Slave trade was a huge product of the European expansion into Africa. Borders and boundaries were changed as Europeans took over colonial territories, and often pitted one group against another. An example of that would be the way the Dutch handled matters in Rwanda -- which in the postcolonial era contributed to a civil war and genocide in Rwanda.
