Why Did Europe Conquered Africa And The Americas

Europeans were motivated to conquest to gain money, and trade was one of the channels where they found it. However, during

1.) The desire to find new trade routes to Asia was one of the motivations for European explorations. Europeans were seeking the wealth of Africa and Asia. They wanted profit, they wanted gold. The spice market was also a huge profit of trading and several countries tried to gain control of spice trade. Another motivation was God and religion. Europeans wanted to spread the teachings of the Gospel to other parts of the world. They believed it was their duty to spread the word of God. Lastly, land was another motivation for European explorations. Some rulers, especially the King of Spain, and the King of Portugal, wanted to claim as much land as they could. The more land and money a country owned, the better their chance of domination in Europe.

One consequence of the exchange was mass death. In the search for new routes for trade, people of Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas came in contact with each other, causing the spread of disease. Columbus's colonization brought a host of new diseases to the populations of the Americas. Europeans exported their diseases such as influenza, tuberculosis and smallpox. In return, European traders and colonizers returned the Europe with syphilis and typhus from the Americas. The slave trade caused the spread of malaria and yellow fever from Africa to the Caribbean and North America, and yellow fever to Europe.

The European colonization of Africa, also known as the Scramble for Africa, Partition of Africa, or Conquest of Africa, occurred between the 1870s and 1900s, and was the invasion, occupation, colonization, and annexation of African territory by European powers during a period of New Imperialism. European control of the continent increased from 10 percent (1870) to 90 percent (1914), with only three territories, Saguia el-Hamra, which was later integrated into Spanish Sahara, Ethiopia and Liberia remaining independent of Europe’s control. There were many reasons for the European colonization of Africa, including economic and political motives, with the Berlin Conference serving as a catalyst. Africans resisted the European invasions of their lands, with the two main methods of opposition were guerilla warfare and direct military engagement. European influence on Africa still remains today, though these influences are generally negative and hurt Africa’s overall development.

In the readings, the authors mentioned the explorer’s goals for God, Gold, and Glory. They entered the soils of new land that was already occupied by the natives with the goal of gaining lots of gold to bring back to their country, sharing their beliefs in god by converting the Native Americans, and returning their homeland to be congratulated for their work. The readings all talked about how Columbus’s main goal was to convert the the natives of the new land to Christianity. Another similarity was a mass murdering of the people living in the new discovered country occurred. The texts explained that how the epidemics and wars that began to form only occurred when the explorers arrived.

Europe was out to conquer the world and become the most powerful continent in the world. With the how advance Europe was compared they were able to conquer Africa .The determination of powerful European countries to conquer Africa was exploration, profit, and means

Countries believed that Power could be shown through most own territories, so they began taking land from Africa. Lastly, Europeans wanted raw materials/resources, and Africa

The Columbian exchange was passed through the old, new worlds, and Africa (Columbian Exchange). The geography of these three places and their downfalls and rises all work together to import and export goods and species (Columbian Exchange). They exported goods, slaves, and animals (Columbian Exchange). Europeans all together were the best at trading for goods and exporting goods to making themselves have such an early advantage (Columbian Exchange). The Columbian exchange refers to the exchange of diseases, ideas, food crops, and populations between the new world and old world following the voyage to the Americas by Christopher Columbus in 1492, by the old world meaning the eastern hemisphere (Columbian Exchange). The discoveries of new supplies and metals is the best known, the old world also gained staple crops, sugar and coffee (Columbian Exchange). The exchange of disease occurred such as smallpox, measles, and typhus. Some cuisines of countries were altered by the Columbian exchange; it introduced a wide range of new calorically rich staple crops to the old world –namely potatoes, sweet potatoes, maize, and cassavas. The Europeans adapted tobacco. Sugar cane was extremely important for the European masses (Columbian Exchange). The potato provided a large supply of calories and nutrients, it had a positive growth on the population by 12%, and it effected urbanization by 47% as well (Columbian Exchange). Slaves were also imported into the Americas because of the spread of old world diseases to native Americans, the cultivation of highly priced old world crops such as sugar and coffee(Columbian Exchange). Over all, the Columbian exchange helped form Europe and guided it to conquer the Americas (Columbian Exchange). Furthermore, in the tables written by Jared Diamond and

Columbus’ intentions at the beginning of these passages seems to be mainly to convert and help the people of the New World to christianity. However, Columbus quickly appears to become more and more focused on the potential profit of harvesting the available resources.

The role of religion in Christopher Columbus played a very important role in his belief of a divine order and the discovery of the new worlds. This can be identified in his letter to Louis de Santangel regarding his first voyage. The very first line of his letter Columbus states, “As I know that you will be pleased at the great victory with which Our Lord and savior has crowned my voyage.” Then as his letter progresses it describes the many discovers including land, animals, plants and the natives who he says,” They do not hold any creed nor are they idolaters: but they all believe that power and good are in the heavens and they are firmly convinced that I, with these ships and men came from the heavens.” With his religious belief that a

Before the Europeans began to explore Africa, little was known about the continent. However, after some initial exploration of Africa, the Europeans soon realized how economically important this area was, and how much they could profit from it. At the time, European countries had only small colonies in Africa, but after they realized that they could make money from the resources in the inner regions of Africa, they wanted to invade the African regions and assume control. This led to “ the race” and ultimately, the partition of Africa. There were many motives for the Europeans to imperialize Africa. There were humanitarian and religious goals, political goals, military goals, and most importantly, there were economic interests. During the Berlin conference, The European powers decided that they were going to spread the three C’s (Christianity, Commerce, and Civilization) in Africa. To do this, the conference had three aims “ Ensure free trade for all nations throughout the Congo, to ensure free navigation for all countries on the Niger River of West Africa, and agree to set rules by which the Europeans could proceed to divide the rest of the continent.” (Part II: The European Conquest, Pg 11). Later in the document it states that not one African representative was present at the Berlin Conference to discuss Africa's future. The European people tricked themselves into thinking that what they were doing

They should be good and intelligent servants, for I see that they say very quickly everything that is said to them; and I believe that they would become Christians very easily, for it seemed to me that they had no religion” (Columbus 2). Through these words, it can be recognized that Columbus had other plans in mind than just exploring for new land. His motives are blatantly clear that he wanted to convert the Indians to Christians to use them as slaves to do his work on his ‘new found territory’.

Christopher Columbus left a legacy that has impacted much of the Americas and Europe as we see them today. As a young boy, Columbus had set his goals of becoming a sailor early on in life by attending a Portuguese school of seamanship also by teaching himself navigation and geography. These goals were driven by his eagerness to spread the word of religion and quite possibly the chance of Asia riches. Henceforth this need to spread his religion and obtain some riches along the way, Columbus open the door for future explorers and trade with the Americas.

On the 11th of October, they finally reached land. He claimed the island in the name of the King and Queen and set foot on the island. When on the island, he was warmly greeted by the natives because the natives thought that Columbus and his crew were from heaven. The natives were willing to trade pretty much anything for whatever gadgets and gizmos the sailors had on board, no matter if they were broken or worthless. Columbus found these people to be simple minded and easily converted to Christianity without the need for force. He also found the lands that they lived on to be beautiful and very fertile. Even though the main reason why he embarked on this journey was to convert the peoples of India to Christianity, it seemed as though he was

Christopher Columbus and his goalsCertainly, Columbus was a devout Catholic. He lived during the period of the great Spanish Inquisition, which led to the defeat of the Jews and Muslims. Perhaps he wanted to continue the Spanish legacy and spread the faith toward the west. However, personal ambitions may have also sparked Columbus's interest in finding a water route to the Indies. He asks for gold many times from the natives and searches all the islands in hopes of discovering more. He views the natives as a source of economical benefit, hoping to employ them for practical purposes. Even though there are not any indications of immense amounts of gold and spices in the New World, Columbus continues to ask for more Spanish support in order