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Critical Analysis of European Expansion
Motives for European expansion
Essay european expansions
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In the early sixteenth century, European nations such as Portugal, Spain, and France became the most powerful and dominant countries in the world. Although not the most powerful, England like the other countries also followed this trend of exploring across the Atlantic Ocean. These nations believed that colonization of the Atlantic World would increase the territorial expansion, economic and political prosperity, trade and profit. With the same idea in mind the European nations that explored the Atlantic sought different routes. The Portuguese turned toward Africa, the Spanish explored Central and South America, and the English and French focused on the North Atlantic. Through colonization these countries successfully found their riches. Prior
In Symcox and Sullivan’s Christopher Columbus and the Enterprise of the Indies, another side of not only Columbus but also his peers is brought to light. I have never read anything written by Columbus’s contemporaries before reading this book, so it gave me some refreshing insight as opposed to the repetitive glamorized content in high school textbooks. I also appreciate how legal documents such as the Treaty of Tordesillas between Spain and Portugal are included because they give a sense of what else was going on during the time that Columbus was going on these voyages.
The small environment no longer had enough resources to sustain such a large population which motivated them to subdivide and move on. They expanded southward and eastward. They developed seasonal rounds of activity and movement. Climate change expanded the temperate forest throughout North America allowing them to become more familiar with their land. Early Americans. Soon the domestication of plants and animals established. They developed different cultures traditions diets and languages. During the late fifteenth century, Europeans developed the navigational technology and ambitions which allowed them to explore and conquer the world's seas. The Atlantic Ocean once a barrier became a bridge to vast lands and people. The Europeans traveled to the West Indies and India by traveling around Africa. The new discoveries transformed Europe into one of the most dominant continents. European Christians first felt surrounded by their Muslim neighbors. The Muslims were more a more powerful religion extended to North Africa, Southeast Asia, and Central Asia. The Europeans Christians got an opportunity to break out of the Muslim world and spread their beliefs to the newly discovered world and search for the trade riches such as gold, silks, and
Marcus Gravey stated that, “A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.” With that being stated, are the people of the United States, Canada, and Mexico trees without roots? At a young age students learn that Christopher Columbus “sailed the ocean blue in 1492”, a simple song used to assist children remember that America was discovered in 1492. In addition, Thackeray and Findling describe how Columbus’s discovery presented an unimaginable amount of opportunity for Europeans, and therefore, Spanish, French, and later British explores and settlers began to flock to this new world.
In the 17th century, Europeans were eager to colonize in the newly discovered world. Europe was willing to invest time, resources and money into expanding their power. Powerful nations such as Spain, France and Britain settled there by this time and subtly encouraged Europe to do the same. Europe sent people overseas to two sections, The Massachusetts Bay Colony and the Chesapeake Colony. At the beginning, every aspect influenced their colonies success such as social, political, economic, and geographic.
Colonization in Latin America had a major effect on the Americas because the Aztecs died of the disease that the Europeans brought over though the Columbian Exchange. Since the Aztecs could not do much about the diseases that were spreading a lot of them began to die. The evidence from the pictures show that the Columbian Exchange took place during the 16th century. (doc 1). A lot of the Aztecs got sick and died. People could not do much about the diseases because they did not know what kind of disease it was. The Aztecs were also not immune to any of the disease that were spreading. Those are some reasons why the colonization in Latin America had a major effect on the Natives.
Beginning in 1492, Spain had been the first European nation to sail westward across the Atlantic Ocean and colonize the Amerindian nations of the Western Hemisphere. The empire that came from this exploration extended from Virginia on the
In the 15th century there were three dominant nations in the world, China, Islam, and Europe. All three were strong powerful countries that battled for the greatest and the best. But one question that seams to puzzle people is: why did the Europeans discover America before Islam and China? What was it about them that lead them to discover the Americas before any one else? There are many reasons that caused them to be there, but with the discovery of the Americas came some consequences.
The immediate cause of the European voyages of discovery was the conquest of Constantinople by the Ottoman Turks in 1453. While Egypt and Italian city-state of Venice was left with a monopoly on ottoman trade for spices and eastern goods it allowed Portugal and Spain to break the grip by finding an Atlantic route. Portugal took the lead in the Atlantic exploration because of the reconquest from the Muslims, good finances, and their long standing seafaring traditions. In dealing with agriculture, The Portuguese discovered Brazil on accident, but they concentrated on the Far East and used Brazil as a ground for criminals. Pernambuco, the first area to be settled, became the world’s largest sugar producer by 1550. Pernambuco was a land of plantations and Indian slaves. While the market for sugar grew so did the need for slaves. Therefore the African Slave start became greatly into effect. Around 1511 Africans began working as slaves in the Americas. In 1492, Columbus embarked on his voyage from Spain to the Americas. The Euro...
Looking back into history, at around the 1500s to the 1600s, people were very much the same in the sense that many countries were looking to aggrandize their economy and appear the greatest. It was this pride and thinking that motivated many of the superpowers of the world’s past. Two such monarchies in the European continent included England and Spain, which had at the time, the best fleets the world has ever seen. Because both were often striving to be the best, they conflicted with one another. Although England and Spain had their differences, they both had a thirst to see new things and it was this hunger that led them both to discovering different parts of the “New World” and thus, colonizing the Americas.
European exploration allowed the global mapping of the world, resulting in a new world-view and distant civilizations acknowledging each other. (Hamilton) It started in 1415 when Prince Henry led a military force that landed in Morocco, making Portugal the first European country to land in Africa. Less than a hundred years later Portuguese explorers like Vasco da Gama and Pedro Alvares Cabral sailed and conquered numerous territories across the map such as sub-Saharan Africa, Angola, Mozambique, Mombasa, India, and Brazil. These influential discoveries led to the Portuguese having complete control of the African sea route and opened the way to European control of the space trade.
France was not the only European nations that had the idea to expand and gain wealth. Many European nations had the objective to be the most superior, dominant and powerful country of all. They were going to master the objective through a process known as colonization. The idea of Colonization became the key to open the lock to become a powerful nation. As stated in Colonialism: a Primary Source Analysis, “colonialism comes from the word colony. A colony is usually a group of peo...
Opportunity for England to discover, explore and settle new lands arose in the late fifteenth century. Competition to stake claims in the new world was out of control in many European countries. Beginning in the early sixteenth century England's primary political focus was aimed towards the hostile situation with Spain. Spain and Portugal had already sent voyages to the new world and other voyages to navigate the globe. Increasing friction regarding Spain peaked during the second half of the sixteenth century. Therefore, a group of Englishmen began to urge the enforcement of establishing colonies or at least operational bases in North America. The aggressive relations with Spain opened the pathway for colonization of America, but were not the only reasons for the establishment for colonies in the new world.
Scholars have debated not only the nature of Iberian colonialism, but also the impact that independence had on the people of Latin America. Historian Jaime E. Rodriguez said that, “The emancipation of [Latin America] did not merely consist of separation from the mother country, as in the case of the United States. It also destroyed a vast and responsive social, political, and economic system that functioned well despite many imperfections.” I believe that when independence emerged in Latin America, it was a positive force. However, as time progressed, it indeed does cause conflict.
Western Colonialism was a political and economic phenomenon where many European nations explored, conquered, settled and exploited large areas of the world. In the West colonialism began during the 15th century, which is also referred to as The Age of Discovery. The Age of Discovery was mainly led by a development in Human mobility. The flourishing technologies in the west at the time had endorsed European travel on a transcontinental scale, this then lead to colonization around the rest of the world. The travel around the Atlantic Ocean stimulated colonization. Furthermore, it is important to consider all the contributing factors that were key to the western worlds domination. Other key factors were their developed military forces, the ever
When asked which nation contributed the most to sea exploration in the fifteenth century, the obvious answer is Spain. What if there were another nation, a nation whose contributions were far more than landing one continent? What if there was a nation that in only 100 years managed to sail in every ocean, every major sea, touched every continent except Antarctica and possibly Australia, and were the first Europeans to land in China, Korea, New Guinea, the Azores, Cape Verde and numerous other places. Well, there was such a nation, and it is Portugal. Portugal was the country that lead the greatest expansion of the known world in the history of the world. In only one hundred years they managed to be the first Europeans in nearly one half the globe, as well as be the first to push south. The accomplishments of the rest of Europe paled in comparison. The Portuguese exploration and expansion at this time is a huge subject. Here will be discussed only one of their voyages, that of Vasco da Gama's voyage to India, as he was the first European to sail to there. Prince Henry the Navigator was most definitely a driving force in this venture, while the King during the voyage, Manuel, was the one who ordered it. Bartolmeu Dias was the first to round the Cape of Good Hope, in his 1487-88 voyage, proving that it could be done, and breaking ground for da Gama.