Why Did The Interaction Between The Europeans Take Place?

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

The European conquest of America began as an offshoot of the quest for a sea route to India, China, and the islands of the East Indies, the source of the silk, tea, spices, porcelain, and other luxury goods on which international trade in the early modern era centered. Profit and piety-the desire to eliminate Islamic middlemen and win control of the lucrative trade for Christian Western Europe-combined to inspire the quest for a direct route to Asia. Long before Columbus sailed, Europeans had dreamed of a land of abundance, riches, and ease beyond the western horizon. They hoped America would bring them a

The beginning of the exchange happens, the plants and foods. The diets of the two cultures happened to be different, and so they altered them. The Western Hemisphere had many new different options for the Europeans to choose from. There were three new foods that the Europeans did not recognize, but took advantage; corn, which was called maize, it basically grew everywhere, sweet and white potatoes, and many different kinds of beans that the Europeans loved. (Shi and Tindall 37). Some other examples of the food the Indians shared with the Europeans are peanuts, peppers, tomatoes, pumpkins, pineapples, avocados, cacao, chewing gum, and the list goes on. The Europeans, on the other hand, presented to the indigenous people, the greatest foods that still go on to this day, which are, rice, wheat, barley, wine grapes, melons, coffee, olives, bananas, daisies, and many more. The transactions of these foods were so important to both cultures because when they combined them, they were amazingly rich in taste. Europeans did not have pepper, but when adding it to the food it became something so delicious it could not be real. Also, they did not know that in the future young people would conquer the New World with the positive effect that corn left them (Shi and Tindall 37). Both of these groups basically repaired their culture for good.

Europeans gain access to new goods and markets, and this creates a demand for things like silk, spices, and ivory.

Nutmeg was traded as early as 200 BC, when the Romans would travel from Egypt across the Indian Ocean, to trade goods with the natives of Banda in exchange for spices. Spice use declined around the 5th century with the fall of the Roman Empire, and was later reintroduced by the Arabs. (Conley, J. 2002.) In the 6th century the Arabs were the only traders of spice, and acted as middlemen for India, Indonesia, Africa, and the Orient, supplying spices to Europe through Venice at high prices. ( ) Nutmeg was highly valued in medieval European cuisine as a flavoring, food preservative, and for perceived medicinal properties. St Theodore the Studite was known for allowing his monks to sprinkle nutmeg on their pease

The Indians interactions with the French, English, and the Spanish varied depending on the wants and needs of the new settlers. The French embraced the Indian culture in order to maintain a good trade relationship. The English used more of a forceful tactic, forcing the Indians violence.

In 1492, spice trade led to Europe's exploration and discovery of the Americas, their advanced weaponry allowed for the colonization of the Americas and also slave trade in Africa. Europe was on the verge of an economic explosion before this time and the Columbian Exchange and Triangular Exchange between Europe, Africa, and the Americas was the push they needed for their economy to boom. The Europeans began to grow wealthy at the expense of Africa and the Americas. The growing economy started to create a middle class and the Europeans began to see themselves as superior, socially and economically, especially

Europe craved the Asian goods such as silk, drugs for aching flesh, perfumes, colorful draperies, and spices (sugar).

With the ever emerging civilizations in numerous parts of the world, food aided in linking them together. Food-trade routes acted as inter-boundary communication networks that improved not just commercial exchange but religious and cultural exchange as well. Spice routes that spanned the ancient world resulted in cross cultural fertilization in fields which were very diverse, similar then to the fields of architecture, religion and science. The first geographers began to take interest in people and customs from far away places and put together the first efforts at world maps. But by far the biggest change caused by food trade was as a result of the European need to avoid the Arab spice domination. The result of this was the revelation of a new world, the establishment of first colonial outposts by the European nations and the opening of maritime trade routes

*After getting the goods from asia, they raised the price of the goods before trading it with north europeans.

This related perfectly with Charles d' Avenant's “An Essay on the East­Indian Trade”(Doc#8) which is written by a English scholar who speaks of how Europe also buys Asian commodities

In the words of David Arnold, gold, jewels, silks, carpets, spices, and porcelain suggested luxury, wealth, skilled artisans and thriving craft industries, and it was this image of Africa and Asia’s riches that helped inspire the first European voyages of discovery (Arnold 11). Europe could essentially see the wealth of the countries that manufactured the goods that Europe received and wanted the same wealth

4. 1902 National Reclamation Act: created new farmland and drew Mexicans in. Encouraged the irrigation of arid land.

Pepper, saffron and sugar were popular commodities in sub continental trade, and even rice traveled as a trade item

Before the age of exploration, spices changed hands many times on their way to Europe-