The Benefits Of European Exploration : Pros And Cons Of America

When, Columbus set foot on America he initiated a biological, ecological, and economic exchange. Exchanges of slaves, animals, technology, plants, animals, diseases transformed European and Native American ways of life. The plants that were exchanged in the Columbian Exchange changed both the culture and the economy of the Old and New Worlds. There were many new plants discovered in the Americas which included maize, chili peppers, peanuts, tomatoes, avocado, sweet potatoes, pineapple, and cacao, but the two main plants were the maize and potato. New farming equipment like the plow was also introduced to the new cultivate more land. Although some farming equipment were discovers slaves were still used to harvest sugar canes, field tobacco,

Throughout the 15th and 16th centuries, European exploration and expansion thrived. Portugal led the way in this movement of exploration with their development of efficiently built ships known as caravels, seafaring devices such as compasses and astrolabes, and cutting-edge naval academies. Various European countries, including Spain, England, France, etc., followed Portugal’s example by utilizing their progressive naval technology. These technological advancements led to the crossing of oceans and eventually the circumnavigation of the world. These Portuguese sailing techniques were implemented by explorers such as Christopher Columbus, John Cabot, Hernando Cortes, Francisco Pizarro, and Bernal Castillo allowing them to travel by sea to places such as Africa, East Asia, the Caribbean, and the Americas. These nations and explorers were persuaded to put in the time and effort to complete these complex expeditions by three essential motivations. Financial gain, political dignity, and religious expansion were fundamental motivators for the European Age of Exploration.

European exploration has been often remarked in history courses as a wonderful period in history; leading to the discovery of the Americas and many sellable goods. However, when looking at the effects on the indigenous peoples of the lands that were pillaged; it wasn’t necessarily as wonderful as once thought. European exploration has led to many positive discoveries and negative results. Whether it was all good or all bad is up to interpretation of the reader so, in the spirit of choices here are some positive and negative effects of European exploration.

Throughout early history, beginning with 1492, exploration was well on its way. European nations began heading west towards the New World in search of new trade routes to the East Indies. With support from kings through financial aid and moral guidance, a new peak was reached upon the arrival of Columbus in the Caribbean islands off the mainland of the Americas. Such an extraordinary event, future voyages were sent off to explore the rest of the New World by Spanish, French, and English ships and explorers. During these times of exploration, traveling nations encountered the Natives among the lands where they would then determine their future through alliances and conflicts. The settlement patterns, along with the attitudes of the American Indians that were encountered with by the Spanish, French and English exploration, can be compared and contrasted through the goals of these nations culturally and socially, and even through the opportunity for economic growth .

The Spanish exploration of America brought many new foods, types of plants, and many forms of wealth to the European world. However, the wealth that was brought from the Americas came at a cost. The suffering and enslavement of the Native people and the transportation of Africans to America to be used as slaves alongside the Natives. Many motivations were used to support this extraction of wealth and treatment of the Natives and Africans, however two are easily verifiable. The Spanish colonization from 1492 to 1700 was motivated by religious conversion of all peoples in America and the desire for wealth and profit that had a significant impact on the lives of Native Americans and Africans.

The Columbian exchange offered the Native Americans access to foreign imports, such as horses and new sources of high calorie food, such as wheat. These varying imports aided them in daily tasks, and enabled simpler living on a daily basis. Aside from bartered goods, the Spaniards brought along a new culture — a culture of intrusion, as well as advancement. The new culture was one that forcibly relied upon the

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

The Age of Exploration spread many ideas and knowledge through cultural diffusion to new lands. With the discovery of the Americas, new lands were conquered and religions like Christianity found new followers. While there are many positive aspects of the Age of Exploration, it was a bad thing for others. In the sixteenth century the Europeans had a positive or negative effect on Europe, Africa and the Americas The Europeans affected European culture in an unsurprisingly good way. As depicted in Doc 8, while they did lose half of their ships they came back with a huge profit in spices.

Once Columbus returned to Spain, he told the current monarchs of Spain, King Ferdinand, and Queen Isabella, what he discovered in the New World. He told them about the generous amount of resources present there, especially gold. Ferdinand and Isabella became greedy and wanted to become as wealthy as possible. They sent hundreds of Spanish conquistadors to gather all of the abundant resources in the New World and to begin to set up colonies. The conquistadors accomplished this goal only at the expense of the natives and the surrounding environment.

Following the success of Christopher Columbus’ voyage to the Americas in the early16th century, the Spaniards, French and Europeans alike made it their number one priority to sail the open seas of the Atlantic with hopes of catching a glimpse of the new territory. Once there, they immediately fell in love the land, the Americas would be the one place in the world where a poor man would be able to come and create a wealthy living for himself despite his upbringing. Its rich grounds were perfect for farming popular crops such as tobacco, sugarcane, and cotton. However, there was only one problem; it would require an abundant amount of manpower to work these vast lands but the funding for these farming projects was very scarce in fact it was

When the Spaniards explored to the New World, a lot of people were affected. The Spanish had found a New World, which changed their lives greatly, but the NA’s were affected in many horrendous ways. Both the Spanish and the NA’s had positive effects, from this exploration,but the negative affects were a burden to deal with, and often too much of a burden for some. Both the NA’s and the Spanish gained resources like different foods, and animals, but was it really worth it? Although this exploration was good for some, the end result was more negative, resulting in a negative part of history.

leather, fur and dairy products such as cheese. Horses were also presented and provided quicker transport and made labor easier. Many fruit trees were brought to the Americas (peaches, figues, olives, apples and bananas) and were cultivated on a large scale to export. The introduction of all of these new foods and livestock changed the Americas and its natural environment. Europeans not only brought

Whenever you hear about the European Exploration, or ‘The Age of Discovery’’ you hear a lot about what the Europeans gained from it, while they did learn a lot from this and gather a lot of new resources they were not the only ones affected. The Age of Discovery affected more areas that just Europe, it also affected the Americas and Africa. To prove this we must first know what European Exploration is.

I believe that more good than bad has resulted from European exploration. Although there were many bad things that occurred during this time, I believe the benefits outweighed the cost and in the long run, many great things have resulted from European exploration.

As Spanish conquistadors conquered and settled land after land in the New World, jewelry from the natives and mines of silver and gold poured into the Spanish treasury from the Incas. Sugar, coffee, bananas, tobacco and other profitable crops that thrived in the warm climate of the Caribbean islands, Central America and South America, filled ship after Spanish ship with an abundance of wealth from the new colonies. As Spain’s treasury filled, other European nations had their eyes on the golden mine of New World treasures.