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Age of exploration essay introduction
Age of Exploration
Age of Exploration
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During the Age of Exploration and European exploration, what people were mostly after were gold, god, and glory. What prompted the Age of Exploration was people trying to be free from oppression from nobles, resurgences of old vices, slavery and more. While thus it led to the European exploration being a “rebirth” of technology, bringing navigational instruments such as astrolabes and quadrants as well as larger ships armed with cannons. An invention that was brought out around this time period was the printing press, which changed history enabling learning opportunities to expand. Then this led to the search of more European expansion, searching for gold and glory (land), an example would be Hernan Cortes, “ most dramatic European conquest...Hernan
Cortes is driven by dreams of gold and glory...a fleet of eleven..carried nearly 600 (Shi and Tindall).” Francisco Pizarro another example, he led soldiers toward Peru overtaking the Incan empire and taking its gold and silver, leading to settlements.
The other reason for exploration was everyone wanted more land to expand their power. Both England and France got into multiple confrontations over land. With at least only 4 wars, England and France spent at least 32 years at war with each other (Document 7). Of those wars Britain mostly had the best outcomes of them. With Britain acquiring all this land, the slave trade then started appearing.Slaves were put on ships with horrible conditions (Document 4). Expansion of the new world was a major demand and also was a cause for the slave
The Exploration Era was a time period when countries and people made journeys overseas to find “the New World.” With the help of the printing press, the discoveries of the Americas were known globally making people curious to explore it themselves. In the map “Distribution of Columbus’ Letter” (Document D), it shows where the letter was published and where it was translated to different. This is due to the printing press. Along with the many documents, the news of Christopher Columbus’ discoveries of “India” or the New World had sparked the curiosity of people all over the world. People became more interested in geography and seeing what’s out there along with the different resources. The New World discovery opened up a new trade route and different trade items. This would create pros and cons like economic growth and slavery. In addition the exploration of the Europeans helped us gain knowledge and get a picture of the Americas. In the “Henricus Martellus’ World Map, 1489” (Document E), it shows the world as they knew it with Europe, Africa, and Asia. The “Martin Waldseemuller's World Map, 1507” was an updated, more correct version of the world we see today. Waldseemuller’s map includes the Americas and was much bigger than Martellus’. The printing press had helped Waldseemuller use this new knowledge to create a map that would depict something
The article “Navigating the Age of Exploration” by Ted Widmer explains how people view American history with only the assumptions pertaining to the present boundaries of the United States instead of seeing the world as explorers did during the Age of Exploration and expanding our boundaries to understand America’s history more fully. Widmer points out that many teachers of American history don’t teach a full continental perspective extending beyond American borders, which doesn’t give credit to the various cultures that contributed to the foundation of the United States. Today, people know little about the contributions of explorers during the Age of Exploration, and their impacts on America. During the Age of Exploration, the Europeans created
Toward the end of pre-colonial times in Europe, due to the fall of Constantinople, many European nations felt the need to find an alternate route to the East Indies. The trade of rare goods such as spices, rice, exotic fruits and silk fabrics were much in demand, but came at extreme prices. In the beginning of the ‘Age of Exploration’, Portugal was in the forefront with the early explorers Henry the Navigator, Zarco and Tristao Vaz Teixeira, and Diogo Silves discovering the Madeira Islands, the Azores, and the exploration of Africa respectively, but King John the II of Portugal was unconvinced by Christopher Columbus’s pleas to fund his plan to sail West to the East Indies. Columbus made many demands for self-profit, including ten percent of any riches with which he returned, and even an ‘Admiralty’. Subsequently, Columbus took his plans to Queen Isabella of Spain. Spain acquiesced, and Columbus set off on his fateful journey. The Roman Catholic Church was very interested in expanding the Christian faith during this time and applied its influence on the monarchy. Religion also played a large personal role as Columbus truly believed that God spoke to him, and guided his hand. Additionally, at this time in Europe, land and food were at a premium. The monarchs of the era were fully aware that the acquisition of more land, slave labor and possible natural resources would greatly increase their power, prestige and subsequent wealth. After learning of Columbus’ successful return and the Treaty of Tordesillas (which divided the New World between Spain and Portugal), King Henry VII of England threw his hat into the ring and sent John Cabot sailing from Bristol on an attempt to find a shorter route to the ‘Indies’. Not to be left out in ...
Exploration was economically, politically, and religiously motivated. All explorers had an objective before embarking on their voyages; however, not all explorers went about their expeditions the same. Christopher Columbus described in his journal how his main goal was to aid himself and Spain by treating the Natives and their lands that he encountered as a means to profitable goods. Samuel de Champlain had contrasting ideas, and he allied himself with certain tribes giving the French additional control. Champlain’s friendliness, concern, and cooperation with the natives took him past the economic dealings and into a more trustworthy relationship.
Human mobility, in terms of European transcontinental exploration and colonization, began to truly flourish after the 1400s. This travel, inspired by financial motives and justified by religious goals, resulted in the European dominance and decimation of countless cultures in both the Americas and Eurasia. While at first glance it seems as though this dominance was achieved through mainly military means - European militias, like Spanish conquistadors, rolling over native tribes with their technologically advanced weapons - the reality is significantly more complex. The Europeans, most likely unknowingly, employed another, equally deadly weapon during their exploits. With their travel, they brought with them the infectious diseases of their homelands, exposing the defenseless natives to foreign malady that their bodies had no hope of developing immunities against. Because of the nature of disease and their limited knowledge about its modes of infection, the Europeans were able to dispense highly contagious and mortal illnesses while limiting their contraction of any native ones to the new territories. In short, they were able to kill without being killed. In this way, the travel of disease in conjunction with the travel of humans in a search for exotic commodities was able to limit or even halt the development of some cultures while allowing others to flourish at exponential rates.
Many events occurred such as, The New World being discovered by European Explorers in 1492. Later in 1498, they also discovered a sea route to India in the East. All of these events contributed to the idea that the Explorers had more impact than the Reformation and Religions. Thus, the Explorers were more important because they found the New World and discovered many things. Christopher Colombus was who found the New World and Vasco de Gama discovered the sea route to India.
The European exploration and colonization resulted in commercial expansion of trade in agricultural products between Europe and America. In some time, colonization resulted in religious tolerance and representative government that have for several years encouraged similar developments in other countries. In addition, early European exploration led to redistribution of human populations as magnitude of people from Europe and Africa moved to America. Before the colonization and exploration period, the Native Americans had established a number of forms of social organization.
After hearing the letter written about Columbus and his findings of the islands off of the Americas, people became more interested and intrigued, opening the way for European Exploration. The printing press helped spread his letters and many others’, all over Europe, promoting a wider range of knowledge to morepeople. Overall, the printing press affected the Age of Exploration more than the Protestant Reformation through inspiration of other’s findings and
The Age of Exploration brought many unforeseen changes to the people of Africa. On a path seeking gold, glory, and God, many explorers reached new parts of Africa. Explorers were seeking a more direct route to Asia and believed they must travel through Africa to reach these Asian lands. Namely, Portugal was interested in this under the direction of Prince Henry. There, he believed they could capture the riches of Muslim trade and convert the natives to Christianity. King Henry died before the route to Asia could be accomplished but he laid the groundwork for later exploration and encounters with Africa. During the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries, Europeans desire to find Asia greatly impacted the lives of native Africans through the slave
The Scientific Revolution indulged Europeans to look at life through different aspects as well as experimenting, searching for answers (, being open minded). The rise of the Ottoman Empire meant that Muslims could dominate the Middle East, so they charged Christians major taxes for all of the goods that would come their way towards Europe. Christopher Columbus, an explorer, sought for a way to avoid the taxes and set forth by sailing west to get to Asia. Spain, England and France all looked for trade routes to Asia. Columbus suggested crossing the Atlantic believing he would hit Asia, not knowing that there would be a country in his way. Every country was at “war” claiming land and trying to colonize. A numbering amount of men died and neglected their expedition by living with other tribes and taking some for wives.
The Age of Exploration (1400-1600) was a time of great conquest, discovery and superstition. In which humans first circumnavigated the globe, discovered the “New World” and trade was first established between both Europe, the Americas and Africa. However, in order to fuel this rapid expansion in both land, commercialisation and greed, there was an increased demand in slavery. Without the low cost labour, trade opportunities and employment slavery provided, the Age of Exploration would have been far less successful and prosperous.
The Renaissance was the most influential time period in the discovery of America. During the Renaissance, which lasted from the 14th century to the 17th century, great advancements were made in methods of navigation. Also, the greatest goal of almost every nation and empire was to claim new lands and seize its riches. The desire for the land motivated some to move westward. Another motive to expand during the Renaissance was the will to convert the native "heathens" into Christians.
The discovery of the new world brought the Europeans resources, money, and people. Discovery of the new was such an impact on the European exploration because of land. Countries would now have more land in their name with lots of resources. Discovery the new world made the European come up with the ideal of slavery. This was a negative for the people who lived on the land because they were either killed, brought into slavery, or kicked off the island (3). Crops and resources was another reason why the discovery of the new world was important. Exploring the world gave the Europeans resources that were very convenience. Gold was the greatest convenience resources found during the European exploration (3). When the Europeans were traveling across they weren’t just looking for land and money. They also learned from the Indians and others about their culture (3). Learning about another culture made the explorers bring back some of their culture and share it with the old world. The explorers found lots of resources and crops that they didn’t have, they also found out that the Indians didn’t have things they had, and this is what lead to the Columbian
What determines whether an action undertaken by any agent is right or wrong? Lon L. Fuller's 1949 article, The Case of the Speluncean Explorers, provides a situation whereby the ethical definitions of right action are evaluated. The ethical study of right action consists of two major moral theories being de-ontological (backward looking/origin) and teleological (forward looking/ends). Both also have religious and non-religious strands. The de-ontological theory consists of the divine-command theory (religious) and Kantianism (non-religious), while the teleological theory is composed of natural-law theory (religious) and utilitarianism (non-religious). In this paper, all four strands of moral theory will be used to evaluate the Fuller article and decipher which moral theory best serves the argument whether the actions of the four defendants were ethically permissible given the situation. At the end of this paper, sufficient proof will be given to prove that the application of Kantian ethical theory regarding right action—the categorical imperative—with Christine Korsgaard's double-level theories is pertinent in bringing about a moral conclusion to the case involved.