Exploration Of The New World From 1500 To 1550

Their contemporaries described them as “Robbers, Opposers, and Violators of all Laws, Humane and Divine.” Many viewed themselves as a more selfish reincarnation of Robin Hood, stealing from wealthy merchants, foreign traders, and abusive captains, and in doing so, threatening the hierarchical status quo of seventeenth and eighteenth English society by declaring “war against the world.” The Law considered them hostes humani generis, enemies of all mankind. In reality, Anglo-American pirates were none of those things, or perhaps more accurately, were not one but a combination. They were all robbers, since piracy in its most elementary definition is nothing more than a robbery at sea, something the English Admiralty recognized from its establishment in the fourteenth century. There was certainly also some relevance for their self-perceptive image of stealing from the rich and giving to themselves in order to escape the unjustness of a hierarchical society.

The Europeans, battling the pains of growing into nations, looked west to find the riches of the East only to find an even greater treasure. The Americas would be forever changed by the colonization of Europe. The three main motivations for European expansion into the New World, which include economics, religion, and politics, would combine to shape the colonies and eventually the nations of North and South America.

As early as the fifteenth century, Europeans began to become eager to discover the New World that was unknown to them. With the concerns of rapid population growth, commerce, new learning, and the rise of competing for nation states, they set out for new adventures and discovery. For a long time, Spain and Portugal were the only European powers with New World colonies.

The time period Europeans started to develop officially began in the 15th century and lasted through the 16th century. This period of time symbolizes the time of exploration when Europeans started to explore around the world by land in search of new trading routes, wealth, and knowledge. Many nations were in search of goods, however, the spark for exploration was the curiosity of the new routes for spice and silk exchanges. The impact of the Europeans development would affect the society permanently in the future. Therefore, religion was not the most important factor leading Europe to explore in the 15th and 16th centuries. Instead economics was the most important reason followed by religion and technological advances.

Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca and his companions, Andres Dorantes, Alonzo del Castillo Maldonado, and Estevan were the sole survivors of a four hundred men expedition. The group of them went about the friendly Indian tribes preforming miracles of healing, with the power of Christianity. At one time five sick persons were brought into the camp, and the Indians insisted that Castillo should cure them. At sunset he pronounced a blessing over the sick, and all the Christians united in a prayer to God, asking him to restore the sick to health, and on the following morning there was not a sick person among them. De Vaca and his companions reached the Pacific coast where the Indians, showed signs of civilization, living in houses covered with straw, wearing cotton clothes and dressed skins, with belts and ornaments of stone, and cultivating their fields, but had been driven therefrom by the brutal Spanish soldiery and had taken refuge in the mountains, de Vaca and his comrades, being regarded as emissaries from the Almighty, exercised such power over these untutored savages that, at their bidding, the Indians returned to their deserted habitations, and began again to cultivate their fields, the assurance being given them by de Vaca and his companions that henceforth they would

When humans entered the Iberian Peninsula almost 32000 years ago, the first civilization of Spain was formed. Since then, the country has traveled from an era of prehistoric Iberia to the Middle Ages to a rise as an empire and a member of the European Union .

The age of Exploration in the 1400’s jumpstarted world travel and later sparked interest and an urge to explore not only the world but also the way people saw and thought about the world. In the mid-1500’s scholars began challenging the ideas of the ancient thinkers and the church by practicing and publishing new ways of thinking. These scholars published writings that replaced old assumptions with new theories, this changed the way of thinking in most of Europe. The change in thinking and wide spread new thoughts and ideas was termed the Scientific Revolution. One invention that helped to spread these ideas is the printing press, this allowed scholars and scientists to print, publish, and distribute their ideas.

Several European nations explored and settled the “New World.” Summarize how each nation below established itself in the New World, addressing motivation and method of exploration/settlement.

From 1689 to 1763, almost 200 years after Columbus’ discovery of the New World, several European nations fought to acquire their share of America’s wealth. The Spanish, leaders in the exploration of the New World, were the first to colonize the Americas. In 1494, two years after Columbus’ expeditions, the Treaty of Tordesillas was ratified by the Pope. This treaty split the New World between Portugal and Spain. By the mid 1500s, Spain had gained control of much of western South America, Central America, and Southern North America. Portugal claimed lands in modern day Canada and Brazil. It wasn’t long before other European nations began to dispute the Treaty of Tordesillas. England and France both tried to found colonies during the 1500s but failed pitifully. In the 1600s, France, England, and the Dutch Republic were finally able to successfully established colonies in the Americas. Unfortunately for Spain, they would not be able to control the expansion of the English and French into North America. England would soon become the dominant shareholder of North America due to their objectives when coming to the New World, their victory in Queen Anne’s War, and their victory in the Seven Years’ War.

Christopher Columbus was born in 1451, in his childhood, Columbus is a boy has proved to be a sea charm and ambition want to become sailors. Columbus hired to work on a sailing ship in the convent and then the Columbus expedition begins. On day, in the early morning of October 12, 1492, Christopher Columbus mariners stepped ashore an island in America, a land that no one known. This is a historic event, it was a prelude to understanding the New World, and led to the proliferation of western civilization on this continent. (Congress, 2010)

During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, Europe underwent an age of great exploration. Many expeditioners from countries all over Europe took long voyages into the unknown world. Until this time, Europe, Asia and Africa were the only known colonized lands. With the discovery of new land came the people that had already inhabited there. European expansion and conquest of what quickly became known as the New World had a huge impact on the lives of the indigenous people living there.

In the early 16th century, an immense outburst of exploration was experienced. This vast colonization of the Americas initially began in the 16th century with the introduction of influential factors such as major improvements in technology and various religious conflicts. Developing especially during the period of immense scientific growth known as the Renaissance, technological advancements in areas including shipbuilding were vital to exploration across the Atlantic Ocean. Once it was possible to voyage successfully across the ocean, the desire to spread religion provided a reason for exploration. This intense religious zeal stemmed from religious conflict in Europe, particularly between Protestants and Catholics in the Protestant Reformation;

In the 1400’s the competition between European empires was at a high. Trying to find routes to Asia and the Indies was a big priority for these countries. These far, exotic lands carried gold, spices, and jewels that sold quite pricey and were highly demanded by the royals and the nobles. Many sailors at this time tried to find new routes to these places to get there faster, but Christopher Columbus had a completely new and perilous way to get to the East Indies. Christopher Columbus suffered many lengthy years trying to obtain approval of royals around Europe, but finally Spain agreed after being rejected once before by the Spanish. In 1492, Christopher Columbus made his first of many consequential voyages to the New World with the help

On the other side he discovered a vast body of water that he named "South

When the word pirate is mentioned, many people think of ship carrying men across the seas as they pillage other ships. While this is true to some extent there was much more to the lives of the men that were known as pirates. Pirates were mostly men from French, English or Dutch heritage, and were privateers or merchants. Many of these men were sanctioned by their government. By the Spanish they were call piratas or unsanctioned sea-raiders, and would have a heavy influence of trade in the Caribbean and on the Spanish Empire.