The Age Of Discovery Of The 18th Century Essay

One of the main reasons Europeans sought to explore the world was to spread Christianity. As far as they knew, the New World had never heard of Christianity, and the Spanish Cardinal Trinlini said that this made them “heathens [who] live a barbarous life”. His motivation for exploring these new lands was to save the natives from their ignorance

Religion was also an important factor that helped convince Queen Isabella to employ Columbus. Ferdinand and Isabella were large supporters of the church, a powerful organization at the time. They wanted to spread Catholicism, which was predominant in Spain. The Franciscans, a group of related mendicant religious orders within the Catholic church, were already somewhat interested in a foreign mission as well. If Spain had more control over Asia through a new trade route and began missions there, they could begin to convert the people living there to Christianity. Furthermore, if more Europeans were Christians, they could be stronger than the Muslims. Columbus was also in support of spreading Christianity, and he wanted to spread the word of Jesus Christ as he believed God had intended him to sail the Atlantic Ocean to do so.

Christopher Columbus was an Italian-born man that managed to win the favor and funding of the Spanish monarchy. With this funding, Columbus led the most well-known voyage in human history: the voyage to the New World in 1492. This voyage laid the foundation for future colonies and, eventually, many nations in the world. However, this voyage would not have gone past conceptualization if Columbus had not been supported by the Spanish monarchy. While a variety of factors affected the monarchy’s decision, the primary factors were Columbus’ experience in navigation, assistance Columbus received from Jewish supporters, and the capitulations laid out by Columbus himself.

Religious motives of the ‘Old Land’ of Europe’s exploration can be traced back to the days of the Crusades down to the 11th and 15th century, where the European Christians tried to invade and claim the city of Jerusalem from its Muslim control. The struggle between the Islamic rule and the European Christians planted the ideology of ‘Reconquista’ in the latter’s religion. It influenced the Christian religion with an air of religious intolerance. With the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century, European Catholic’s interests in colonizing newer lands and declare global dominance earned a new momentum. And strong Catholic nations of Spain and Portugal were the

This essay will explore parallels between the ideas of the scientific revolution and the enlightenment. The scientific revolution describes a time when great changes occurred in the way the universe was viewed, d through the advances of sciences during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The enlightenment refers to a movement that grew out of the new scientific ideas of the revolution that occurred in the late seventeenth to eighteenth century. Although both the scientific revolution and enlightenment encapsulate different ideas, the scientific revolution laid the underlying ideological foundations for the enlightenment movement. A number of parallels

The Age of Exploration took place began in the 15th century and continued into the early 17th century. During this time many European and Spanish explorers navigated themselves to the New World. Upon arrival, they discovered the native people that populated the Americas. The Age of Exploration negatively affected the native people of the New World because Europeans and Spaniards forced Catholicism onto them, sold them into slavery, and tortured and killed them.

Christopher Columbus was sponsored by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabel of Spain in 1492 to find an alternate trade route to Asia. The Reconquista was just wrapping up in Spain, and in hopes to continue the movement, the King and Queen encouraged Columbus to spread Christianity once he made landfall. Their goals for his voyage were similar to many at the time: find riches, spread faith, and claim any unconquered lands. Columbus was successful in all three, however, there is much controversy in the measures Columbus took to do so. Although Christopher Columbus caused the death of many indigenous people and ecological succession, his ultimate goal was to carry out the requests of the Spanish government, therefore he should not be found guilty because

The early voyages by the Portuguese and Spanish were motivated by gold, trade and the spread of the Catholic faith through religious conversion. The voyages of a few adventurers show that the Spanish and Portuguese goals were to spread Catholicism, expand trade, and expand the kingdom of the Spanish and the Portuguese to the new lands they’ve discovered. These adventures were Christopher Columbus who attempted to find a new route to Asia to extend Spain’s trade and to colonize, Bartholomew Columbus and his successful founding of Santo Domingo, Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca and his

Between the 1450-1750, European states began to embark on a series of global explorations that prompted a new chapter in world history. It was known as the Age of Discovery, or the Age of Exploration, this period spanned the fifteenth through the early seventeenth century, during which time European expansion to places such as the Americas, Africa, and Asia. Competition between European empires, such as Spain and England, fueled the evolution and advancement of overseas exploration and European empires during this period expanded greatly.

The Age of Exploration was a period from the early 15th century and continuing into the early 17th century, during which European ships traveled the world to search for new trading routes and partners to feed burgeoning capitalism in Europe. This period was rooted in new technologies and ideas growing out of the Renaissance. So far this points towards positive characteristics like a growing economy, discovery, new technologies, and cooperation between neighboring nations. But their was sacrifices that were made to reach such excellence. The trade monopolies that were bypassed fell, this may seem positive as well, but economies would fall with them. The natives of foreign countries would be subjected to invasion, disease, sabotage. And the land

In the concluding moments of Columbus’ letter to Lord Raquel Sanchez, he is describing in great joy the encounter of the indigenous people of the New World. Columbus is full with great gratitude towards his “lord and savior Jesus Christ” (Kishlansky,303) for allowing him to have “the great victory” of the discovery of the existence of the New world. He then exclaims that the great “procession” be made and Christianity be “rejoiced” on Earth. The intentions of spreading the message of Christianity and converting them is evident as one of Columbus’ main intentions. However, Columbus’ discovery of the New World allowed for a lot of Spanish expeditions, such as “Hernan Cortes” (Duiker and Spielvogel,397) expedition of 1519 and “Francisco Pizzaro” (Duiker and Spielvogel,398) expedition of 1531 to properly spread Christianity amongst the Americas. Specifically, Cortes expedition played a detrimental role in the spreading of Christianity amongst the “Aztecs” (Duiker and Spielvogel,398). Documented by Bernal Diaz del Castillo, who was “one of the soldiers who accompanied Hernan Cortes on the conquest of the Aztecs” (Kishlansky,304). Castillo describes an important event that occurred between Cortes and Montezuma, the leader of the Aztecs. After entering the Aztec “temples” (Kishlansky,305),

During the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church was the dominant force in Western civilization. As the Dark Ages came to a close, the monarchies of Europe began to consolidate power; providing an alternative power base. With the Protestant Reformation came another blow to the influence of the Church. Spain, the forerunner in the Age of Discovery, was a fervently Catholic country. During the 16th century, the monarchy combined the forces of "cross and crown" in its imperial policy; much to the dismay and ultimate destruction of the indigenous peoples of the New World. Through an examination of Aztec polytheism and the Catholicism of the conquistadors, comes the central role of religion in the successful conquest of New Spain.

In the 17th Century, there was much controversy between religion and science. The church supported a single worldview that God’s creation was the center of the universe. The kings and rulers were set in their ways to set the people’s minds to believe this and to never question it. From these ideas, the Enlightenment was bred from the Scientific Revolution.

Three weeks after expelling the Jews from Spain, Los Reyes Catolicos signed the following decree: we send Christobal Colon with three caravels through the Ocean Sea to the Indies on some business that concerns the service of God and the expansion of the Catholic faith and our benefit and utility. Throughout the first voyage, Columbus kept a detailed record of his thoughts and actions, in which he sought to justify himself to his Sovereigns, to his Lord, and to himself. He believed that history would be listening. In his record, we began by explaining the premise of the voyage in terms of Reconquista, the reclaiming of the Iberian Peninsula from Muslims who had occupied it for

     The first effect of the Age of Exploration, was the finding of the New World. The New World provided opportunities for European countries to conquer new lands and to obtain wealth while conquering. After Columbus “found'; the New World, there were European explorers embarking on new journeys there constantly. They would set up new colonies and conquer new lands. From these colonies, they set up trading posts back to their mother countries. Gold, fur, corn, potatoes, tobacco, chocolate, and many other products were brought back to Europe. The wealth from these products could only be imagined. The countries would then trade their imports to other countries and make a huge profit.