Ap Euro Dbq Essay

It is known that Christopher Columbus was a talented mariner who navigated the famous “Santa Maria” and two other smaller ships across the Atlantic Ocean in search of Asia. Inadvertently, Columbus and his crew arrived in the New World for one clear objective, to find a long term source of wealth for the King and Queen of Spain. In return of these new riches, preferably gold, he would be rewarded with ten percent of the profits and governorship over newfound land (40). This objective soon turned Columbus towards a search for his own power. Upon first arriving in the Arawaks, Columbus made many observations regarding the indigenous people who had been there before him. After realizing the economic potential the

The way Columbus said those words so nonchalantly really gives me an idea of what kind of man Columbus really was and what kind of mission the Spaniards were really on. What does “I have already taken” mean? To me it means that Columbus now owns these “Indians” and their freedom was most likely taken by force. It means that he has already enslaved these people and they must have not put up much of a fight. He just kind of threw those four words into a sentence in the letter, did not mention how they have taken them or what happened, he just mentions that there are “Indians” and he is letting the monarchs back in Spain know that he has taken them. He mentions nothing more of the people he has just conquered, but moves on to mention how he named their island Hispaniola. This was just a preview for the more barbarism to come.

Inhabiting the Holy Roman Empire in the 16th century, the upper class considered peasants a mere subhuman. Conversely, Martin Luther, a German professor of theology, influenced reformation to the German state. This reformation focused on the peasants, especially the peasant revolt of 1524. As the revolution continued, the Peasant Parliament formed to coordinate activates and strive for optimistic results of the revolt. Consequently, peasants offered moderate reforms that were supported by the towns, but condemned by the nobility and the leading Protestant reformer, Martin Luther. This would be known as the largest uprising in Europe before the

The bias perception of Columbus was that the Indians must be extremely generous, so much so that it is almost like doing business with a child. This feeling of superiority leads to a “protectionist behavior. Columbus tells us that he forbids his sailors to make swaps he regards as scandalous” (Todorov, 1982 page 38). Columbus sees it as him protecting the Indians much like a parent, which shows how he sees the natives as lesser than himself. Despite the seemingly good intentions, this type of behavior exemplifies exactly what often leads to imbalance of power. The idea that gold is so much more valuable than random objects is established only in his culture. He doesn’t understand that in the culture of the Indians something like glass is useable and therefore has more value than gold; so in reality, the “scandalous” exchange was perfectly reasonable for the Indians. This inability to see the motivations of the Indians (or at least the ideas and values they hold) hampers his perception of them and how much Columbus and the Spaniards can learn from the

Explain the reasons for the adoption of a new calendar in revolutionary France and analyze reactions to it in the period 1789 to 1806.

During the Cold war era, the nations of Western Europe achieved economic prosperity and maintained independent, liberal democratic governments.

Columbus's arrogance and exploitation regarding slavery began on his second voyage. Ferdinand and Isabella had ordered that the natives be treated kindly. In opposition to this order, Columbus began exporting slaves in great numbers in 1494. It was because he was not making any real profit elsewhere on the island that he decided to exploit the one source of income--people--he had in abundance (Fernandez-Armesto 107). When word reached him that the crown did not want him sending more slaves, Columbus ignored it. He was desperate to make his expeditions profitable enough for Ferdinand and Isabella's continued support. Evidently he was not reprimanded because thousands of Indians were exported. By the time they reached Spain, usually a third of them were dead. Bartolome de las Casas wrote that one Spaniard had told him they did not need a compass to find their way back to Spain; they could simply follow the bodies of floating Indians who had been tossed overboard when they died (17). It is horrible to consider that the exportation of these natives resulted

C. Not only did they discriminate against Jews, they spread rumours and lies about them.

While the Spanish conquered the New World, there were a couple of approaches used to approach the cultures already present. There were those who focused on getting rich using whatever means they could. And those who valued the natives and the land and believed they weren’t as different as was first believed.

2. “Intellectual depression” refers more to the historical knowledge of the time than the actual people of the time.

The ratification of the constitution was a process which was very controversial and tedious. The people chose sides because they were undereducated about the constitution and were easily influenced. The Federalists’ supported the ratification of the constitution because the Articles of Confederation was falling apart and was causing many domestic and foreign distresses.

Spain’s early entry into colonization in the Caribbean, Mexico, and South America shaped European and developments by establishing a base colony in Hispaniola. Early entry into the new world gave them the advantage of being the first to start collecting new materials. The Native Americans had gold, which, once the Spanish realized that they carried gold, was their main goal. The Spanish even had gold quotas for everyone over 14, and if they were not reached, it was definitely a bad sight. Once Columbus returned to Spain to give word of the new land, he was sent back with a much larger fleet, but the 39 people he left in Hispaniola were killed by the Native Americans. This caused outrage, and Christopher Columbus ordered the capturing and killing

The Islamic world enabled Europe’s transition into the Renaissance by allowing Italy, the center of the Renaissance, to prosper through trade with Venice, and by being the source of many of the writings that Renaissance scholars studied.

For the first ten years of colonization, Hispaniola was the only colony in the Caribbean where the Spanish settled. In the 16thcentury, Hispaniola was the centre of the Spanish colonial system in the Caribbean. It was known as the Pearl of the Caribbean. Just like in the other colonies, the Tainos thought that the Spaniards were gods and welcomed them into their villages. Columbus believed that Hispaniola had gold and forced the Tainos to work in the mines. Columbus also made the Tainos pay the Spanish a tribute to satisfy both the Crown’s and the settler’s greed for gold, and to obtain food for his settlement. It was easy to take control of the Tainos as they assumed that if they pleased the ‘gods’ that they would be richly rewarded in

The Spanish conquest of the West Indies was a strategic economic plan coordinated by the desires of three parties. Christopher Columbus knew the Spanish crown was in desperate need of a trade route to India. When Columbus reached the West Indies it became clear to him that obtaining gold from the natives, peacefully or forcefully, would be an easy source of wealth. The crown, pleased with Columbus’ findings, funded further expeditions which eventually opened the opportunity for merchants to make economic gains in the West Indies. The Spanish crown quickly lost interest in a trading route to India as voyages to America continued to supply not only wealth but labor and land for the Spanish to rule over. Merchants back in Spain also helped fund the conquests by supplying equipment, tools, and slaves in return for gold. These multiple interests all allowed the Spanish to exploit the natives of the West Indies for their own financial gain with no remorse for life or morality.