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Age Of Exploration Impact

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The most important impact of the Age of Exploration on Europe and the Americas, was when Christopher Columbus discovered the Americas in 1492. This created a long lasting impact that would change the new and old world forever. When the Spanish reached the Americas they were not alone, the lands were occupied by American Indians. The Spanish easily annihilated the American Indians, the Spanish were far more technologically advanced, and had guns. The American Indians had no guns and fought in traditional ways with spears and arrows, these weapons were no match to the guns of the Spanish. The Spanish also had a secret weapon on their side, diseases. Small Pox was the deadliest disease they carried, it killed about 95% of the Indian population. …show more content…

The Priests had come in search of converts. The Spanish would spread the ideas of Christianity in the Americas. Spanish priests would burn the natives sacred objects and prohibit native rituals. They used violence and force to convert Indian Americans to Christianity. The Spanish forced the natives to labor and physically abused them. The Age of Exploration spurred the influence of Christianity in Europe and in the Americas. Sugar plantations and tobacco farms required a large supply of workers to make them profitable for their owners. Originally, the owners planned on using the Native Americans as a source of cheap labor, but millions of Native Americans died from disease, warfare, and brutality. This created a demand of finding new replacements, and those replacements were the Africans. This demand for cheap labor resulted in the brutalities of the slave …show more content…

The Columbian Exchange was the global transfer of foods, plants, and animals during the colonization of the Americas. Ships from America brought back lots of items that Europeans, Asians, and Africans had never seen before. They were all eager to trade with one another. The Americans introduced many crops like, tomatoes, squash, pineapples, potatoes, and cocoa beans. Europe introduced various livestock animals in the Americas, Africa traded different foods with the Americas. This created a boom in global trade. Europe had huge advancements in economics and business because of the Age of Exploration. Europe experienced a growth in capitalism. Capitalism is an economic system based on private ownership and the investment of resources. This was important because now no longer were governments the sole owners of great wealth. A business venture that developed during this period was the joint-stock company. The join-stock company worked much like the modern day corporation, with investors buying shares of stock in a company. It involved a number of people combining their wealth for a common

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