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The Founding Of The First Colonies: An Analysis

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The founding of the first colonies in the European nations can best be described through Europe’s lust for land, the prospect of wealth, and religious freedoms.
Lust for Land
With the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus in 1492, the Europeans declared that all of North America was theirs. The Portuguese who disagreed with this claim by Spain drew the attention of Pope Alexander VI. In 1493, Pope Alexander drew a line on a map from north to south and split the sides into. The Pope proclaimed that all of the land west of the line belonged to Spain and all of the lands on the eastern side was therefore given to Portugal. According to Schultz (2010), this line was called “The Line of Demarcation” (p.25) which granted all the rights of

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