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Spanish and English Exploration Essay

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*********** HS 201-005 Paper #1 Sept. 8, 2010 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, …show more content…

Eventually one of Cortes’ men led a massacre of the Mexican nobles, and murdered Montezuma. These conquests led to other conquests with the motivation of more gold and more land. Another conqueror, Francisco Pizarro, also led his men to capture an emperor, Atahualpa of the Incans, and held him for a ransom of silver and gold. With this gold and silver, as well as land, they executed Atahualpa. These violent raids proved beneficial to the Spanish, helping them spread their conquered land further south in the Americas. This quest made the Spanish not only rich in silver and gold, but in land and with slaves, by use of violent force. The English had similar motivations to that of the Spanish, and were even inspired by the success of the Spanish conquistadors to come to the New World and settle on new land. However, the motivations differed greatly as well. The English hoped to provide jobs for people in the New World that could not find them in England, also in hopes of helping England’s economy. The colonists set up a colony at Jamestown to defend themselves against the Indians, and eventually Powhatan’s people came forward to open the trade of corn with the colonists. This corn eventually kept the colonist alive until another ship of more people and supplies came in. This however, did not prepare the colonists for the winter of 1609-1610, or “the starving time”, when only 60 of the original

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