Why did Italian merchants join the efforts of Portuguese mariners in searching for an Atlantic route to India in the fifteenth century?

CWaning French power in the Mediterranean opened the way for them.

DItalians were eager to obtain an alternative source of slaves outside the Middle East.

BThe weakening of the Ottoman Empire made it possible for them to ship through the Strait of Gibraltar and into the Atlantic.

AThe rising power of the Ottoman Empire restricted their overland access to Asian trade.