Impact of the Age of Exploration Economic greed, political control, and religious expansion are a few of the motives that drove the “Age of Exploration”. This was the period of time where European nations searched the globe to enrich their nations by any means necessary. Most nations like Spain, Portugal, and Britain were successful in these endeavors, but with their success came the exploitation of certain indigenous societies. The discovery of the New World and the exploration of Africa and India were the places of interest for these European nations. These interactions created a substantial impact economically, socially, and politically on these indigenous societies. Economically these societies were stripped of precious resources gaining …show more content…
The Spanish and Portuguese discovery of the New World led to the complete economic depletion of indigenous societies in South America. Their precious metals and agricultural crops, worth millions, were taken and sent back to Europe. Unfortunately, the source of labor to achieve this task came from the indigenous people. The Spaniards specifically setup a labor system called the “Encomienda System” that forced the Native Americans into working in gold mines and having to pay tributes to the Spanish. The majority of the natives were unable to manage the grueling demands of the labor system therefore leading to many deaths. Alonso de Zorita, a New World Spanish lawyer, accounted these horrors in his book, “they have been reduced by the thousands by their toil in the gold and silver mines…with heavy burdens to which they were not accustomed” (Zorita 121). The economic demands, with other factors, that the Spanish and Portuguese placed on the Native Americans led to many deaths ultimately causing some of their communities to …show more content…
This system of kidnapping and buying of slaves from African nations was the new focus for Spain, Portugal, and Britain. These European nations depopulated certain African communities by transporting around 10 to 12 million slaves throughout a couple of centuries. In return the economic gain was enormous providing a means for producing their agricultural crops and gaining revenue from the transactions of slaves. Although this system was very productive for the European nations, it left a group of people in fear and shattered their ability to prolong some of their home culture. For example Olaudah Equiano, a former slave, describes in his narrative, “the eagerness of visible in the countenances of the buyers serve not a little to increase the apprehensions of the terrified Africans” (Equiano 184). The cruel treatment that both the Africans and Native Americans received impacted them first and foremost physically and mentally, resulting in numerous deaths and instilling fear, but the most impactful result of this was the loss of their
The North American Slave Trade began when slave traders started to kidnap people of all ages from West Africa. They were forced to endure unspeakable horrors on their trek across the Atlantic as well as when they were finally sold into slavery in the Americas. Olaudah Equiano was one of the few Africans to document his experience on paper, and have his two volume autobiography published. The journey Olaudah suffers through showed the horrors of the trip across the atlantic, but also showed how what he thought and felt about the process as well.
In, conclusion the experiences of Equiano’s servitude in Africa differed from his experience in England. The African slave trade primarily was based upon providing jobs to families or punishment to real criminals. Many times the cruel example of being kidnapped from your village and forced into this way of life was also prevalent. This narrative contains the terrifying events of a young a child being held captive. The sources we have of the truth from this period of time are limited and hard to obtain. Servitude still exists to today in many parts of Africa and will remain a common part of their
As stated earlier, Mercado writes about the illegitimate practices used by Spaniards to capture and sell Africans. He also documents the details how Africans sold each other into slavery to the Spanish for a profit. In describing how Africans sold each other into slavery, Mercado writes, “Parents selling their children as a last resort, there is the bestial practice of selling them without any necessity to do so, and very often through anger or passion, for some displeasure or disrespect they have shown them” (Mercado). From this, it is seen that not only are the Africans being captured by Europeans but they are also being captured by their own people to be sold to the Europeans. Even worse is the fact that Africans even sold their own children into slavery. In the writings of Azurara, he describes a company of African captives in the following passage. “For some kept their heads low and their faces bathed in tears, looking one upon another; others stood groaning very dolorously, looking up to the height of heaven, fixing their eyes upon it crying out loudly, as if asking help of the Father of Nature; others struck their faces with the palms of their hands, throwing themselves at full length upon the ground; others made their lamenations in the manner of a dirge, after the custom of their country” (Azurara, 1). Upon reflection, I believe that this is comparable to
The narrative by Olaudah Equiano gives an interesting perspective of slavery both within and outside of Africa in the eighteenth century. From these writings we can gain insight into the religion and customs of an African culture. We can also see how developed the system of trade was within Africa, and worldwide by this time. Finally, we hear an insider's view on being enslaved, how slaves were treated in Africa, and what the treatment of African slaves was like at the hands of the Europeans.
The Atlantic Slave Trade was one of, if not the largest scale movements of human beings from one part of the world to another by sea and could have been considered a mobile killing machine because of the horrible conditions. The numbers were so large that the slaves who came by slave trade were the most Old-World immigrants in the world. Even though there were only races of people enslaved during the Atlantic Slave Trade, African Americans were the most numerous. Records show 34,941 voyages during the time of the slave trade. The Transatlantic Slave Trade took place across the Atlantic Ocean in the 16th century and lasted till the 19th centuries. The way that the Atlantic Slave Trade came about was cruel but not unthinkable. The capture and enslavement of African Americans was inevitable, the only question was when. A lot more slaves were taken to the South America than to the North America because the South “needed” them more. The South Atlantic economic system was based on producing crops, making goods and other things to sell. The enslaved people didn’t just skip into the ship with smiles on their faces. The Spanish colonists asked the King of Spain for permission to bring slaves to The New World to provide for them. Spanish Colonists were currently forcing Native Americans to do their labor for them but they were dying in large numbers because of diseases and lack of care from the colonists. The King of Spain gave approval to the colonists to import Africans and from then on Africans were transported there for use and labor and other needs of the Spanish colonists. During this time many African American slaves were transported. An estimated twelve to fifteen million African Americans were shipped throughout the world includ...
The age of exploration brought many different experiences/consequences to the conquered countries of Mesoamerica and the conquering countries of Europe. These experiences include the consumable items traded, the cultures that were exchanged, and the ideas that were shared.
Slavery was a cruel institution used worldwide to exploit and dehumanize a certain group of people. African slave trade and slavery is an ingrained part of European colonization. Many European nations enslaved Africans. The first to enslaved Africans were the Portuguese, followed by the Dutch, English, French and lastly the Spanish. Slavery came about because Indian labor declined and was scarce. A demand for forced labor was created and the Spanish Crown turned to Africa Slaves were seem as inferior and were at the bottom of the hierarchy based on race. African slaves were distributed to the Caribbean, Brazil, The United States, and mainland Spanish America. Africans went to many parts if the Indies and were mainly concentrated in lowlands and coastal regions, places where the Indian population declined rapidly. Seeing growth in slave traffic. Spain followed the example of the English and French, and set up a sugar plantation economy that relayed on black slave labor. The three largest slave holding societies in America were Brazil, the Caribbean islands and Southern United States. Slavery is treating a slave as chattel or property, something that can be bought and sold. Many of the slaves came from Africa. Slaves were chosen because they were a form of the cheapest and most reliable labor. The Native Americans were subjected to Spanish rule and were outlawed from being enslaved. Justifications were made for enslaving the Africans. The African slaves had no rights to protect them. Their skin color was an automatic thing that singled them out as alien .The justifications were, they are free from pagan Africa and could enjoy the sacraments of the Catholic Church and Hispanic acculturation. (Holden 10-1-2013) Slavery was...
Slavery will forever remain a tragically horrific stain in American history not only because of the actual act of enslavement, but the treatment of the salves. Slaves were largely of Native American and African descent. The accounts of Bartolome de las Casas and Olaudah Equiano provide two uniquely different viewpoints on their experience of slavery. Defeated, displaced, and tortured, the natives and African people were involuntarily separated from their families and homes to be put in such conditions.
One major reason for the voyages that the European explorers made was to find sea routes that went to East Asia, otherwise known as the Indies as Europeans called them. Christopher Columbus sailed west across the Atlantic Ocean to find a route that went to East Asia, but he landed in the Americas. The Europeans realized that he found what they called the “New World” and not East Asia . This age of exploration made European nations rush to claim lands in the Americas for themselves. Even though the Europeans found a lot of land, the early explorers suffered many hardships. Another motive that led to the age of exploration was that many people wanted to gain more knowledge and the explorations were encouraged by national governments, which had to be ones that were wealthy enough to finance such exploration. The Europeans were also encouraged to explore the world because they had to look for things th...
The Age of Exploration was the time for many great discoveries to rise. There was a great amount of growth for the Europeans as well. At this time period, there was a great deal of decline for the Native American people. Some of these European explorers tried to help others as well as themselves along the journey. Other Europeans helped themselves while making others suffer for their lives. A person who can be described as this is Hernando Cortes. Cortes was born around 1485 at Medellin, Spain. He is mainly known for defeating the Aztec empire and claiming Mexico for Spain. Although he claimed a piece of land for Spain, I believe that Cortes does not deserve to be called a great leader. He destroyed the Aztec civilization and wiped out mostly all the Aztec people. Not only that, Cortes used many people and as well as the Aztecs to gain more power. Killing the people and ending a powerful civilization during the age of exploration does not make Hernando Cortes a “great” leader.
The Age of Discovery began in the fifteenth century when the Spanish and others from Europe and the Old World started launching expeditions to the New World. They wanted to find valuable natural resources, mainly gold. In the new world there were already complex societies, so Cortes wanted to take over. He attacked the Aztec empire and and began the Spanish Conquest. The colonization of the American lands added a lot to the Spanish and European technology and wealth. The spread of knowledge impacted each world greatly, and though in the beginning it was negative for the indigenous people, it turned out
The Age of Exploration was a period in history that has been characterized as a time where Europeans began exploring the world in hopes of discovering land, knowledge, wealth, and trade routes. Introducing continental trade between items and slaves occurred during this period. This altered population and wealth in both the Old and New Worlds. The Age of Exploration brought about positives with the events of the Columbian Exchange and Trans-Atlantic Slave trade. However, pushing past that, many negatives arise, such as the spread of fatal diseases and mass genocide affected both the European explorers and Native Americans.
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
The Age of Exploration is a very controversial era. While many colonists were responsible for the deaths of millions of Indians, they also both discovered and taught material that is still crucial to this day. Whether it was the teaching of Spanish trades (document 4), or the “Columbian Exchange” (document 5), European explorers accomplished many great things that put slight ease to the pain that other explorers caused.
During the explorations the Europeans gained knowledge of other civilization; although the europeans knew of other civilizations that were near Europe they had limited knowledge about civilizations on the other side of the world such as the Americas. Gaining this knowledge would increase the flow of ideas and concepts that would later change the world. The spread of ideas, customs and language were also important for all civilizations after being found by the Europeans. The spread of ideas and language created united communities that spanned over different lands that would be everlasting. For example the arrival of the Europeans in the Caribbean gave the people a common culture that was mixed with European and indigenous heritage. This later was useful in living through slavery and revolting later on. In conclusion, the spread of ideas and culture was the most significant result of the Age of