The Pros And Cons Of Columbus Explorations

Introduction

Before prince Henry who was one of the first European explores to explore, nobody in Europe knew anything about the outside world. People had been to the very tip of Africa and had seen a little bit of Asia. But the Americas were unheard of and the only way to get to Asia was a very long trek on land. The European’s were still using Ptolemy’s map, which was written around A.D. that is 1290 years before and are still using it. Around the 1400s lots of discoveries are happening in Europe, Baroque, renaissance and new sciences like math. People are starting to do things differently than they used to. Also the Europeans were having to get all of the imported good from the Muslims, who were bringing spices and silk from Asian countries

and selling them to the Europeans. The Muslims were the central point between the two. However, the Europeans wanted to get the goods on their own and not go through the Muslims. So then countries started to send ships out to explore. Meanwhile, in the Americas life is continuing on, unaware of all the European culture. In South America the Incans and Aztecs are thriving. The Incan’s had the largest empire before the Europeans came. The center if the Incan empire in Cusco, now Peru. They were on the west coast of south America in the highlands. They were able the create a large empire by using conquest and peaceful assimilation. The Aztecs, who lived in central America were also a very dominate culture. The Aztecs consisted of a triple alliance between the city states of Tenochtitlan, Texcoco, and Tlacopan. Tenochtitlan being the leader of the three wanted to take over Azcapotzalco, who reigned in the basin of Mexico. The launge of the Aztecs was Nahuatl. They dominated the Mesoamerica for the 14th to the 16th century.
Prince Henry of Portugal was the first explore to go along the African coast. He was the third child of the king John 1. Henry was a very important figure in Portuguese politics because he is regarded as the main imitator of the Age of Discoveries.
Prince henry and Africa- a need to get spices, silks and others. Very strong Christian, spread Christianity. Was very Curious and wanted to see what was out there. Only went 2000 miles into Africa, but was the first explorer. Brought back slaves and gold. The 1400s was just the beginning or exploration in Africa. Bartholomew Diaz was the first explorer to reach the Indian ocean. Henry and Diaz were the main explorers. A lot of the explores were from or on their ships.
When Prince Henry first came to Africa, he began bringing slaves back to Europe. At that time in Portugal, there was an extreme shortage of workers. This was due to the many deaths during the Black Plague. Prince Henry was spending enormous sums on his explorations and bringing slaves to work in Portugal was one way to justify the expense of his journeys. Although slave trade was common within and amongst the various African tribes, this was one of the first time slaves were taken out of the country and put into a western context. As European nations saw the economic gain to be had, slavery expanded rapidly which led to further exploration and conquest in Africa.
Disease
While the west coast of Africa was being explored and its people exploited, the great kingdoms of America had little interference from Europeans.

However, in 1492 Columbus set sail from Spain and discovered islands and territories in the New World. He discovered islands and built posts in various locations in the Caribbean and central America. Unfortunately, Columbus’ explorations soon turned to exploitation. What began as trade soon ended up as conquest. Columbus could not be content with honest bargaining for the various islands’ riches. His greed led him to use force against the people in order to attempt to gain riches. The presence of Columbus and his troops also led to the rapid deaths of up to a million natives due to their exposure to germs that had never been in this region. The cruelty of forced labor could not begin to compare to the terrors of these new diseases. Columbus’ success triggered a huge interest in exploration and conquest of the new world. Desire for gold and other riches drove others to risk the unknown seas in hopes of great gain. This led to a great hunger for more exploration. Soon, in 1520, Hernando Cortes and his troops were laying siege and destruction to Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital. Although Cortes, his men and their native allies warred against the Aztecs, the most troubling and difficult battle was the one against European germs. Some estimates say that up to fifty percent of the native population died due to the rapid spread of smallpox through the people. More than 25 million Aztecs succumbed to European disease. More than anything else, these unwelcome European “guests” changed the face of the Americas through the unintentional introduction of diseases such as small pox and typhus. The native populations had no natural immunity to these as yet unknown diseases. Therefore, the diseases spread rapidly and the people had no time to discover treatments for them. Similarly, a few years later in 1526, having heard about great

riches in the area, Francisco Pizarro arrived in the territory of the Incan empire. Smallpox had already spread to and weakened the Incans before his arrival. Embroiled in their own civil war and weakened by disease, the Incans were easily taken by Pizarro’s small force. Pizarro captured the Incan ruler, Atahualpa. Despite the payment of a rich ransom, Pizarro had Atahualpa killed. Over the next few decades the Incan empire crumbled under the domination of the Spaniards. The once efficient Incan labor system was used against the people as they were forced to slave for the Spanish under brutal conditions. The magnificent culture of these people all but disappeared due to the greed of their European oppressors.

Colonization