The Important Features Of Spain's Many Discoveries

In 1492, Christopher Columbus set sail from Spain looking for a shortcut to Asia. The King and Queen of Spain put the money up for the cost of the journey. He was looking for trade goods that he could sell back in Spain, he took a Catholic priest with him to spread the word of God to the native people of the new lands. These explorations will change the world more between 1400 and 1800, trade, travel, weaponry, and ideas will result in changes that will be seen around the world.

Spain, Portugal, and France sought to convert natives to the Roman Catholic Church, while England and the Netherlands believed that Catholicism was corrupt, and attempted to build support for the Protestant movement in the New World.

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 .

European nations in the 15th century began exploring new lands with three motives: religion, wealth, and glory. It was made possible by advances in naval fleet building and navigation, first pioneered by the Portuguese. Europeans began to be involved in extensive exploration, coming in contact with Africa, Americas and their prime target Asia. The main targets of the pioneering Portugese and Spanish was to find and alternate trade route for the Indies trade and also promote Christianity to the new lands. As the century unfolded, the search for newer territories to colonize and shortern routes to the exotic land of spices and silk became the initial driving force for the intensive early exploration by the Europeans .

The years of 1200-1750 were times of massive change in Western Europe and much of the world. However, one of the most important turning points of the time period occurred when advances in seafaring technology led the Americas to be discovered and trans-regional trade to intensify and expand across the globe. This intensification of trade led to the beginnings of the African slave trade and the destruction of the indigenous peoples of South and Central America, which changed the course of history. Despite all of this change, however, trade still remained a profound source of cultural diffusion, and the influence and power of China on world trade and politics did not waver. This essay will be outlining the specific ways in which the world changed and stayed the same during the age of exploration, with

In a time when European countries were prompted to explore the New World, two countries in particular had a desire to control not only Europe, but the world. The Age of Exploration occurred between the fifteenth and seventh century and led to the discovery of the Americas, which was called the New World at the time. During this time, countries such as Spain and England had citizens travel to the New World for multiple reasons yet had both similarities and differences in both of the country's new colonies. It was in this context that the Spanish and British colonies in the New World were both dramatically alike and different by the differences in the colonies’ religious practices, the similarity of the harsh treatment of Indigenous people through

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

Introduction: Columbus he has change history as we know it in 1492. When he sailed to the americas to find things new for europe, and know one believed he could find it but he did because one person believed.

Portuguese explorers fled to Western India looking for new goods. Later on, Christopher Columbus was ordered to convert people to the Christian religion on and expedtion. On this expedition, he explored new things. He brought back new ideas and rulers throughout Europe began to fund voyages. The goals of the Spanish Monarchs had changed becasue of his voyage. Not only did he convert people to the churches religion, but he gained and found new land and discovered many things. The Columbian

Spain goal was to save the native people of the Americas from heathenism and prevent them of Protestantism.

Research Question: The New World was not found in a day! Who are the famous explores from 1492-1550’s?

Two of the most influential explorers in the 1500s are Francisco Pizarro and Hernán Cortés. Both were great conquistadors from Spain and were some of the first people to explore certain areas in the “new world.” After exploring the new land that they had each found, they decided to claim it for Spain, but first they had to deal with the hostile natives that already controlled the land.

This resulted in the conquistadors to give the Natives a choice-convert to the Catholic religion or die. But, unlike the Spanish, the French did not go to equivalent lengths. In contrast to the Spanish, the French missionaries (Jesuits) assembled colonies first, while having religion as the second reason for settlement. Because conversion was the second option for settlement, the French establish colonies and built Christian churches afterwards. As stated previously, conversion was a second option for the French.

The greed for gold and the race for El Dorado were the main inducements of the Spaniards who, at the peril of their lives, crossed the ocean in unfit vessels in a mad pursuit after the gold and all other precious property of the Indians” (Peace 479). The royal rulers of Spain made it a rule that nothing would jeopardize their ability to rob the land from the native people of Latin America. The missionary process, “had to be encouraged, but the missionaries could not be permitted to dominate the colony at the cost of royal rule” (Gibson 76). The European governments established missionaries to cleanse their minds of any guilt aroused by the slaughtering of innocent men, women, and children. When European “ships arrived in the 16th century to colonize the land and exploit its natural resources, they killed indigenous people and brought black slaves from Africa. Millions of indigenous people were slain and their cultures completely destroyed by the process of colonization” (Ribero). The overall devastations caused by the Christianization of the native inhabitants created a blend of cultures within the indigenous civilizations which gradually isolated old native ways into a small population of oppressed people. The Christianized people became a symbol of loyalty to the European powers and were left alone simply on their religious status. This long term mission of total religious replacement caused very strong and advanced

1. Three arguments’ that Juan Gines de Sepulveda used to justify enslaving the Native Americans were for gold, ore deposits, and for God’s sake and man’s faith in him. 2. Three arguments that Bartolome de las Casas gave in attacking Spanish clonial policies in the New World were the Indians eating human flesh, worshiping false gods, and also, he believed that the Indians were cowardly and timid. 3. For comparisons that Sepulveda used, in lines 1-7, to express the inferiority of the Indians was their prudence, skill virtues, and humanity were inferior to the Spanish as children to adults, or even apes to men. Comparisons he used to dismiss the significance of the Indians