Essay On The Age Of Discovery

The Age of “Discovery”, a period that brought notable changes to regions spanning the globe, began in the 15th century. Following the end of the highly influential Renaissance period, many people in Europe developed an interest in the foreign lands of the world. This resulted in the beginning of the Age of Discovery, which was marked as the period of great global exploration and expansion. The country of Portugal fueled the start of this period. Portugal, which had been blocked from making advancements in trade in the past due to the overwhelming presence of more influential countries, spearheaded exploration during this time. After successfully taking control of regions in Africa and the Atlantic archipelagos following minor exploration expeditions,

Portugal continued to expand their efforts. This led to riches and success as well as resentment from the great European powers that wished to reap the benefits of exploring.

With the Portuguese finding success in southern trade, neighboring Spain was compelled to compete; this further strained the relationship between the two countries. However, the Islamic invasion and conflicting political agendas discouraged Spain from fully pursuing exploration. At the end of the 15th century, after some of its main internal issues had been solved and the country had restructured itself, Spain became fully committed to exploring. Rivaling the Portuguese for supremacy, the Spanish elected to begin by exploring lands to the west of Europe in hopes of finding a trade route to Asia and surrounding territories. This ultimately led to Spain’s ‘discovery’ of the Americas (or the “West Indies”) in late 1492. Sadly for Spain, leading explorer Christopher Columbus did not actually land on the American continent; he and the crew from his three ships (the Niña, the Pinta and the Santa Mariá) landed in the Caribbean. From the months of October to December Columbus’ crew specifically examined the islands of Cuba, The Bahamas and Hispaniola. Spain did not initially achieve the same success that Portugal did, mainly because the people of the Caribbean weren’t interested in trading. As a result, the discovery was somewhat of a disappointment for Spain. However, Spain was able to find wealth upon later explorations of the American continent itself during the Age of Discovery.

Many other voyages also occurred during the Age of Discovery.

Portuguese born and Spanish serving explorer Ferdinand Magellan tried to find the westward route to South East Asia that had eluded Christopher Columbus in the previous decades. Commanding five ships, Magellan helped his crew successfully circumnavigate the Earth and return to Spain with goods from the “Spice Islands”. Unfortunately, Magellan died during the Battle of Mactan on the trip back to Spain. In addition, Capitan James Cook made voyages that led him all the way to modern day Alaska, which he was able to map

out.

The explorations that occurred throughout the Age of Discovery significantly changed the way Europeans thought of the world. For one, Europeans began to question the Bible (which had no mention of the New World) and began to second-guess their religion altogether. As a result, science began to rival religion in terms of importance and many ‘crazy’ new ideas such as gravity and Earth’s shape became more widely accepted. Europeans were also able to try new exotic goods that had been traded with countries in the New World. This expanded upon the base of foods that were consumed by Europeans and opened their eyes to new experiences.

Unfortunately, the Europeans’ exploration of “foreign lands” didn’t bode as well for the people that inhabited these lands.

Most notably, Portugal captured and enslaved many Africans whilst moving south to continue exploring the world, growing richer with every one sold. As many as 150,000 Africans were enslaved and sold by the Portuguese within the first 50 years of the Age of Discovery. Similarly, Christopher Columbus kidnapped approximately three to four dozen Caribbean natives before returning home to Spain. In addition, during Cortes’ exploration of Mexico, many native Aztec people became infected with smallpox. This disease, which the Europeans brought from their overcrowded cities, spread like wildfire; it killed off a substantial amount of the native

population.