Pathfinders: A Global History of Exploration by Felipe Fernandez-Armesto

Duran, Diego. The History of the Indies of New Spain. 1581, trans. Doris Hayden. University of Oklahoma Press, 1994.

European exploration, in its entirety, is a complex subject with many causes and effects. In the attempt to break away from their previous home, colonists experienced a novel mixing of a variety of life, people plants and animals included. Africans, Europeans, and Indians all became acquainted in a new medley of a society. Each group, all with a unique cultural background, found a common identity as Americans due to the many new encounters and new neighbors. This was the beginning of the melting pot America is today. With “profit-seeking and soul-seeking” as the motive, Europeans concentrated the many cultures in young America.

Diamond describes the early parts of human history in a broad scope towards the beginning of the book. He focuses on both the evolution and spread of human beings, arguing that some civilizations had a head start over other ones because of when the period of human evolution took place. He explains how different environments shaped human history through an a example of how populations which inhabited the Polynesian islands developed differently due to the different environments and then by telling the stories about what happened as populations with better geographical advantages encountered more disadvantaged populations in the Americas. Diamond explains the many factors that influenced the historical progression of different societies. Diamond argues how food production was very much a primary factor in the advancement of each society. Societies

For decades, the history of Latin America has been shrouded in a cover of Spanish glory and myth that misleads and complicates the views of historians everywhere. Myths such as the relationship between natives and conquistadors, and the individuality of the conquistadors themselves stand as only a few examples of how this history may have become broken and distorted. However, in Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest Matthew Restall goes to great lengths to dispel these myths and provide a more accurate history of Latin American, in a readable and enjoyable book.

At first Native Americans, Europeans and Africans were separated by the vast oceans in between their continents, but as technologies and trade in Europe advanced the three region’s worlds collided. There were various similarities and differences in policy, economy and religion amongst the three regions but alas, contact between these empires reaped inevitable change among all these for the better or worse.

During the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries, the Europeans decided to embark on many journeys that would change their way of life forever. These journeys and the exchange of people, ideas, animals, food, and diseases between the two groups shaped history for the next five hundred years. When the Europeans arrived at this new-found land, they discovered what they considered to be an entirely new species of humans, the Native Americans. These two newly encountered groups of people had a few of the same characteristics and way of living, but overall the differences between them were extremely immense.

Lastly, Diaz’s account is more credible because his distinctive experiences and he wrote the book to add his experience with the topic. First, he was a child of the Columbus’s exploration year. Then, he joined Cortez during his mission to explore and conquer the new world. After that, he wrote his book to the reading public in Spain to show that Aztec’s environment and how they respectfully welcomed them. Additionally, who wrote a book

Spanish exploration and settlement of the western hemisphere lasted from 1492 until 1898, from Christopher Columbus’s first voyage to the loss of its last colonies in the Spanish-American war. As with all major seafaring European nations, they were in pursuit of the fabled Northwest Passage, a direct route to Asia. This was how Christopher Columbus stumbled upon the Americas, on his quest for this route. The Spanish were after more though, specifically gold and spread of the Christian faith. With this page we will discuss multiple historical figures, places, and ideas that emphasized what the Spanish found most important at the time, God and gold.

Spanish and English had similar motivations for exploration of the New World, such as gaining land, goods from the natives, and gold. However, their motivations also differ greatly. The Spanish conquistadors also gained slaves from the native people, as well as spreading the word of Christianity. The English settlers came to the New World to get away from the religious oppression in England and to practice religion freely, and to grow tobacco to send back to England. The Spanish gained much more land quickly because, upon landing in places like the Caribbean and Brazil, because of their conquering and enslaving of the natives. The English came to the New World much less prepared,

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

The Age of Exploration contains both benefits and harms to the groups of people, animals, and land that is associated. The damaging effects of the Age of Exploration were directed, for the most part, upon the people and land of the New World. With the treasure and innovation brought by Europeans in their ships were the

Missions and haciendas were similar and different. One way they were similar was that they were both large pieces of land the had a farm/ranch. In the Spanish and Portuguese chapter in the textbook it says, “The missions were settlements that contained a working farm, living quarters, churches, schools, and workshops,” which is showing that the settlements were large to have all those things on them and that they had a farm on the settlement. In the Life in the Colonies chapter of the textbook it says, “Haciendas were large ranches and plantations,” which shows that haciendas had a ranch on a large piece of land. That is how missions and haciendas are similar.One way they were different is that a hacienda was owned by a peninsular or a creole

But a glance at the Aztec and Inca realms in about 1492 helps explain how so dramatic a debacle was possible. In conclusion I find that while I am not a historian, and after having a basic interest in the subject, from other books I have read the precise explanation for the success of the Spanish conquest is a matter of on-going debate among historians, and not a settled point that allows the string of explanations that are listed above to be bluntly labeled as “false”. This dismissal of the complexity of the history on this particular topic, and similar condemnations on other topics in the book, can seem to undermine the general authority of the histories presented. These observations aside, however, 1492 is an engaging and informative survey of a point in history in which, as Felipe states, “a new world, the world we are in, began to take

“History cannot give us a program for the future, but it can give us a fuller understanding of ourselves, and of our common humanity, so that we can better face the future” Robert Penn Warren. What is the true meaning of history? History started even before we were born, it started since God created the universe. History has been on this universe for now about billions of years. Many events happened, such as Renaissance, The Golden Age, Age of the Dinosaurs, World War I and II, and others.

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