The world is constantly changing, but imagine someone finding an entire new continent. Europeans decided to start exploring as they slowly became almost addicted to amazing new things from China and India like spices. They were extremely expensive and high in demand, so explorers were consumed with the idea of find a faster route for the goods to travel. When Columbus and his crew spotted the Bahamas October 12, 1492, they spotted opportunities they could only dream of. Exploration impacted Europeans, African Americans, and Native Americans each in very different ways. A desire for unique goods and a little exploring changed the world forever.
To say Europeans benefited them most from European exploration would be an understatement. This
…show more content…
Slavery had always been a part of their culture, but it seems as if as Europeans discovered more, slavery started to rise. This was the beginning of the end for African culture and unique tribal features. The Portuguese used these techniques to start their own larger scale version of slave trade for the sugar plantation. When America was discovered there were many new crops to grow. Since people saw Africans as cheap and good labor, it was not a big decision to use them. European exploration led to slaves becoming a booming business and to them being a staple in plantations in America. If the Portuguese had not explored Africa, slavery may have never become as popular. This could have prevented African Americans in America from facing racism and a lack of human rights. Exploration that led to slavery also aided in destroying families, culture, language, history, and tribes in Africa. Sadly slavery also benefited very few Africans because they were involved in selling or aiding the Portuguese in trade. Another effect of Europeans finding the Americas was that the loss of population from slave trade was balanced by a population increase because of foods like corn and sweet potatoes being introduced. This allowed tribes to rebuild and for their lives to become as normal as possible again .If they had not been introduced to these foods and a famine or disease came through, Africa possibly …show more content…
They had lived in the Americas since they crossed the land bridge in the time of Pangea and lived in harmony with the Earth. Little did they know their entire existence would be changed and threatened with the arrival of strangers. The Aztecs had advances in agriculture and architecture, but no large animals like horses for work or a wheel. When Cortes came with horses, this could have given them the opportunity to develop further. The Native Americans in present day America used horse for hunting and being nomads. Without explorers introducing these animals, Native Americans may have never been able to advance or have the culture they have today. One negative effect of exploration was the explorers were very cruel to the Native Americans. Many took their gold, brought diseases, fought with them, forced them to accept European ways, and started encomienda. These actions led to their population decreasing rapidly. They lack immunities for diseases like small pox and the plague combined with people dying in battles or of exhaustion during slavery left very small numbers. This led to entire tribes dying out along with their unique language and culture. History is missing whole societies of the past who first lived in the Americas because explorers found them and caused them to die. The Native Americans who survived were treated poorly; some had to convert to Christianity, and then start following a modified European
In 1732, John Barbot wrote in his writing (Collection of Voyages) that “African canoes carrying slaves on board of ships at Manfroe. Also shows European trading vessels and slave ships in the background and various forts.”(Source 1) This stated that Africans were the ones who started the whole thing and the Europeans didn’t really get into the idea since they were mainly there for gold and silvers. Thus, Africans were the ones who regulated this slave trade during this period. In 1786-1787, Europeans began the “Capture and Coffle of Enslaved Africans, Angola, 1786-87” (Source 10) Europeans began to enslaved Africans to work on the plantations and Africa’s superiority began to decrease. Also, Curtin Phillip D. in The Atlantic Slave Trade; a Census. London: University of Wisconsin Press,1969, “… the transformation of...
It should no longer come as any great surprise that Columbus was not the first to discover the Americas--Carthaginians, Vikings, and even St. Brendan may have set foot on the Western Hemisphere long before Columbus crossed the Atlantic. But none of these incidental contacts made the impact that Columbus did. Columbus and company were bound to bring more than the benefits of Christianity and double entry bookkeeping to America. His voyages started the Columbian Exchange, a hemispherical swap of peoples, plants, animals and diseases that transformed not only the world he had discovered but also the one he had left.
Pre-Columbian Mexico was far from the uncivilized and sparsely populated image Europeans portray. For example, Tenochtitlan (now, geographically, Mexico City) had a population of a quarter million when Cortés' forces arrived in 1519. This makes Tenochtitlan larger than any European city of the time (Grennes 2007). At their peaks, the Aztec empire had a population of 25 million and the Inca empire had a population of 15 million. In North America, population was not as dense as their southern neighbors but their environment did not go unscathed. For example, the slash-and-burn method was used to improve their hunter-gatherer lifestyle. Prairies became more open for hunting and wooded areas soils were replenished by the ashes. Unlike the Old World, which includes Europe and Asia, the Native Americans had not mastered metallurgy or the large scale use of metal tools, had significantly fewer domesticated animals and used animals for ...
Christopher Columbus’ unintentional finding changed the lives of Europeans. The New World was an opportunity for various countries to make improvements. Whether expanding meant spreading religion, finding riches, or discovering a trade route, each country had its own motivation for expansion. Spain, France, and England were only three of many countries to take advantage of life in the New
African slaves were brought to the America’s by the millions in the 17th and 18th century. The Spanish and British established lucrative slave trades within Africa and populated their new territories with captured and then enslaved Africans. The British brought the slaves to their new colonies in North America to work on the large plantations and the Spanish and Portuguese brought the slaves to South America. Slavery within North and South America had many commonalities yet at the same time differences between the two institutions.
Many people would be surprised that the things they associate with certain countries are not native to those lands. Sugar was not originally grown in the Caribbean and cows are not indigenous to the United States. Before the Age of Exploration, a period lasting for centuries with long-extending effects, Europeans had not truly begun to explore Asia, Africa, and the Americas. Even with the fearless adventures of the Vikings, Polynesians, and Ming Chinese, no extreme, lasting difference was created. Once people began exploring outside of their own worlds, great social, political, and economic change was ushered in with the exchange and alteration of people, plants, animals, technology, diseases, religion, and political systems.
European explorers first landed on the shores of what would later become North America more than 500 years ago. Not long after the first explorers had entered the "New World" they found out that they were not alone on this new frontier. Their neighbors in this new land were the Native Americans who had been there for centuries, virtually unaware of life outside the continent. Thus began an inconsistent and often times unstable relationship between the European settlers and the North American Indians. Two nations who had particularly interesting relationships with the Native Americans were the British and the French, both of whom took different approaches to their relations with the Indians economically as well as culturally. Neither nation had complete trust for the Indians, nor did the Indians ever completely trust the men who arrived on "floating islands with many tall trees". Nonetheless, they did interact with one another in their daily lives. Both economically and culturally the French and British went about their interactions with the Native Americans differently. Through first hand writings and documents as well as observations by historians, it is evident that the British and French interacted with the Indians of North America in different ways.
During the fifteenth century Europeans busted onto the world scene. It began with the search for spices and Christians. Vasco da Gama set sail southward along the West African coast for the spice trade. He thought that others would soon adapt this trade and follow behind him. Christopher Columbus set sail towards America while Vasco da Gama went towards the Indian Ocean. Following this a large amount of European states came into the picture. They had created a widely complex global trade network. This was under the control by Western ships and Western power that delivered food-stuffs, textile goods, spices, and minerals from one end to the other.
There is no doubt that the Atlantic Slave Trade made an enduring mark on the regions of Europe, America, and Africa. The Atlantic System began with the need of available labor sources for large plantations. The transport of slaves through the Middle Passage soon advanced into wider proportions, and the Triangular Trade was established. While Europe and America gained economic, and industrial advantages from the slave route, it is Africa that suffered the most impact culturally, economically, and emotionally.
The Age of exploration served as a major turning point that greatly impacted the world. It was a significant time in the understanding of geography, and the establishment of colonies in the Americas. The Europeans greatly benefitted from the colonies they set up, but, unfortunately, caused major destruction and devastation to the Native Americans.
Africans felt the impact of European exploration through the slave trade, the rise of new nations, and the rise of European power in Africa. Europeans entered into the slave trade taking thousands of native Africans from their homelands. Due to profits gained from slave trade, many new African states were settled including the Asante Kingdom and Oyo Empire. Europeans like the British, French, and Dutch
The voyage of Columbus started the construction of a new world, where the Europeans dominated and settled in the Americas. The Spanish conquered the Aztec and Inca empires, the Portuguese settled in modern day Brazil, while the British, French and Dutch were in the Northern part of America. The odds were in their favor, since they were geographically closer, winds of the Atlantic were fixed and their sailing equipment was more advanced. They expanded primarily to get more land, wealthier, and on same cases to spread Christianity. The Native Americans had no immunity to the diseases that the Europeans brought with them, thus leading to a massive decrease in their number. The high death rates of the Native Americans lead to the importation of
European exploration brought many new ideas and practices to the world. Europeans exploration discoveries brought negative and positive impacts to the society they were building. The explorations was a success for many countries, but it also was a loss for a lot of Native Americans people. The exploration started a new mankind, it gave countries and people items they never had. The discovery of new world was a big impacts from the European exploration. Countries were now fighting over lands and the resources that were on the land. Slavery and the Columbian change were also big impacts from the exploration. The world changed because of these three big impacts of the European explorations. There
The Spaniards arrived at the Americas prior to the English. The Spanish mainly wanted to explore in the first place because after the Black Death, the population increased, and thus, so did the frequency of commerce. There was a sudden new interest in new products and the new strong monarchs who sponsored the journeys wanted to be more affluent. Therefore, explorers such as Christopher Columbus attempted to go west to target Asia. However, he ended up on Cuba and called the natives Indians. The Spanish soon started to consider the Americas less of a blockage and could now see it as a source of resources. In 1518, Cortes arrived into Mexico with his group of conquistadors, or conquerors, which is a proper name because the men after gold exterminated native areas using their military skills, brutality and greed to turn the Southern America into a vast Spanish empire. The smallpox the Spanish unknowingly carried also helped wipe many people out. When they saw the religious ceremonies of the Aztecs that produced many skulls, they thought of these people as savages and not entirely human. This of coarse was quite hypocritical because the Spanish have killed before during the Inquisition for their faith. It was this contempt that made them think it was all right to slaughter the natives. Spanish colonies were established when conquistadors had gotten a license to finance the expedition from the crown to fixture encomiendas. These encomiendas were basically Indian villages that became a source of labor. The Spanish dreamed of becoming wealthier from South America, but they also wanted a profitable agricultural economy and to spread their Catholic religion (the Pueblo Indians converted to Christianity), which became very important in the 1540s.
One of the first historians to address slavery in Africa was Walter Rodney, he stated that the Europeans demanded labor with the shipment of African Americans in the New World. (pg.245 Precolonial Civilization). These people believed the slave life was a typical day in a community as the slave owners were African American as well and they worked together to finish their cropping’s, as their women stayed home and did their stay at home duties. When it came to American slavery it has stated that slavery first launched in America, when the first group of African Americans were transported to the Northern part of America which is recognized as Jamestown, Virginia in 1619. (Slavery in America) The reason why Europeans brought these people were to crop tobacco, then later turned into cotton picking. After word got out that Europeans were shipping African American for a very cheap price, Americans began to contribute to the slave trade and it then spread all over the world. According to the article “Slavery in America,” some of the other historians have estimated that about six to seven million slaves were brought to the New World during the 18th century. This estimation has been just a general idea because not all slaves were