The New World During The European Age Of Exploration Essay

Before 1453, Europe was in a period of time often referred to as the Dark ages. Critics claim that they had little access to any kind of trade, wealth or ideas that traveled along the Silk Roads. Meaning that the Europeans economy was based largely off of agriculture and they lived very difficult lives in poverty. This was until daring and courageous men decided to pull Europe out of the Dark ages and into the Renaissance (A Golden Age). The many voyages of European explorers and conquistadors are what brought Europe into what would become known as The Age of Exploration. This connected Europe to trade and cultural ideas along the east. Although the Europeans and conquistadors did conquer the natives and spread the base of slavery, these men did bring new ideas, technology, science and culture that ultimately result in a huge impact on history.

European colonization changed the economy, culture, and history in general, therefore making it a hugely influential event. Not only did it change Europe, but it completely changed the New World.

Until the late 1400's, Europeans did not know the existence of the two American continents ( North and South America ). To the European explorers, exploring the other side of the Atlantic was like exploring an entire different world, hence the name- the New World. In 1492, Christopher Columbus unknowingly discovered the new continent. His original motives for exploring was to find an easier route to Asia but instead, he discovered the New World. Thus; Spain, France and England began sending out conquistadors and explorers to the uncharted terrains of the new continent. Motives for the Spanish, French, and English explorers varied greatly, however, they were similar in some ways. The motives of the Spanish explorers were acquisition of

European explorers first landed on the shores of what would later become North America more than 500 years ago. Not long after the first explorers had entered the "New World" they found out that they were not alone on this new frontier. Their neighbors in this new land were the Native Americans who had been there for centuries, virtually unaware of life outside the continent. Thus began an inconsistent and often times unstable relationship between the European settlers and the North American Indians. Two nations who had particularly interesting relationships with the Native Americans were the British and the French, both of whom took different approaches to their relations with the Indians economically as well

European exploration of the New World led to many social effects. To start with, the Europeans brought with them many germs and diseases that decimated many societies in the Americas. The diseases, such as the smallpox, led to the deaths of many indigenous people and the demographic collapse of many Native American societies. The Europeans also brought plants and animals over to the Americas. The plants that were grown reflected a distinct European diet and the horses in the North American West were used frequently for hunting as farmers began to abandon their fields. Women were no longer viewed as responsible for producing food as hunting became more popular with men. Another social effect was how marriages between Spanish men and elite native women were greatly supported in Amerindian societies. Native women who were married to Spanish men lived a better life than ordinary native women. On the other hand, indigenous women who were below the elite were frequently mistreated and abused by European men. Since there were very few Spanish women, Spanish men and Indian women came together to produce mixed-race children known as Mestizo. Many Indian women agreed to have children with Spanish men to ensure that they and their children would not have to be subjected to abuse. As the Spanish took control over the Aztec and Inca empires, a social order based on race came into existence. The Spanish male settlers were placed at the top, followed by the mixed-race population, and at

*The Age of Exploration saw searches of wealth, new lands, and conversion of christianity. Europeans ed the first globe trading empires and would they would make trips to the western hemisphere.

The desire to explore the unknown has been a driving force in human history since the dawn of time. From the earliest documented accounts, ancient civilizations have explored the world around them. Early adventures were motivated by religious beliefs, a desire for conquest, the need for trade, and an unsatisfying hunger for gold. The great Age of Exploration, beginning in the late 1400s, was an important era in the discovery and development of lands yet unknown to the Europeans. During this period, Europe sought new sea routes to Asia in pursuit of economic gain, increased glory, and opportunities to spread Christianity. Although these were motivations for explorers, the impact from the discoveries resulted in significant changes and

As early as the fifteenth century, Europeans began to become eager to discover the New World that was unknown to them. With the concerns of rapid population growth, commerce, new learning, and the rise of competing for nation states, they set out for new adventures and discovery. For a long time, Spain and Portugal were the only European powers with New World colonies.

Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca and his companions, Andres Dorantes, Alonzo del Castillo Maldonado, and Estevan were the sole survivors of a four hundred men expedition. The group of them went about the friendly Indian tribes preforming miracles of healing, with the power of Christianity. At one time five sick persons were brought into the camp, and the Indians insisted that Castillo should cure them. At sunset he pronounced a blessing over the sick, and all the Christians united in a prayer to God, asking him to restore the sick to health, and on the following morning there was not a sick person among them. De Vaca and his companions reached the Pacific coast where the Indians, showed signs of civilization, living in houses covered with straw, wearing cotton clothes and dressed skins, with belts and ornaments of stone, and cultivating their fields, but had been driven therefrom by the brutal Spanish soldiery and had taken refuge in the mountains, de Vaca and his comrades, being regarded as emissaries from the Almighty, exercised such power over these untutored savages that, at their bidding, the Indians returned to their deserted habitations, and began again to cultivate their fields, the assurance being given them by de Vaca and his companions that henceforth they would

The development of the New World relied upon the buying and trading of slaves, as African Americans were critical labor force for plantations and construction crews that lead to the development of the Americas. During the course of slavery, ship Captains, Plantation owners and slaves composed journals of there their trips, tribulations and daily life. The stories and details vary, depending on who is recounting the tails, but one constant found throughout is that the poor treatment of slaves was evident. Even in journals written by people like Captain Phillips, who wrote about how he made his lively hood off of selling and buying African Americans, the inhuman treatment could be seen even though he had no intention of writing about it. On the other hand there are journals from African slaves, such as Harriet Jacobs, that served the purpose to detail the difficulties they faced and their harsh treatment rather than how they made money for their owners. No matter which stories one reads the sense of African slaves being treated inhumanly and like products in a store for the economic growth and profit for private traders can be seen.

Impacts of European expansion reached across the world and affected more than the expanding European powers and their colonies in the new world. Life in the world changed when these two cultures that were directly opposite of one another collided. Europe was filled with greed for resources and wealth, the Indigenous people living on these resources were living a simple sustainable life with next to no government or regulation. Once the new world was set up Europeans who ran these new territories called colonists today developed their own society and way of living and would end up revolting against the homeland.

Mexico/ the New World has never been in contact with this disease before leaving the people that lived in these new places to have no immunity to the disease. This is commonly referred to as a virgin soil epidemic and is defined by Crosby as, “those in which the populations at risk have had no previous contact with the diseases that strikes them and are therefore immunologically almost defenseless.” This new disease brought over from Europe left Natives defenseless and was not well documented. Historians still do not have an accurate estimation of how many Natives died due to

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.

Before labor become modernized, it was a means to construct the New World during its formation in the late fifteenth century. After Christopher Columbus and the Spaniards discovered what would now be called the Americas, the use of labor became intensely racialized during the centuries to follow. This foreign land became a new territory in which the Europeans believed they could control to gain wealth and power. The manpower used to construct the European settlements included certain forms of coerced and forced labor, which included white indentured servants, Native Americans and African slaves. Native Americans would resist often with fierce aggression against the white settlers and indentured servitude would diminish after wealthy colonists succeeded in breaking ties between white and black laborers. The English colonists would need large amounts of labor to produce high volumes of agriculture that was created by the tobacco and farming industries. It resulted in the increased trade and use African slaves becoming the permanent form of labor because they were viewed as the cheapest and disposable form of labor. Africans became disadvantaged because their skin color meant they were seen as inferior or as property to own and gave motive to the Europeans to conquer them. In the eyes of Western Europe, being black was equal to being a slave which allowed the formation of an African based slavery and would become engrained in America’s history. More specifically, interracial

On the other side he discovered a vast body of water that he named "South