In modern time we often hear the phrase "Life begins at the end of your comfort zone". This was also true in the 1400's and 1500's, when many European nations left the comfort and security of their known lands, venturing into a world of the unknown. This became known as the Renaissance period, that built the cultural bridge between the Middle Ages and Modern History. Spain, France and England all took part of this voyage into the New World, all desiring the same thing: Power.
These European nations with little knowledge of the world beyond their homes set sail in the late 1400's. With hopes of finding a sea route to Asia for its spices to preserve their meat, gold and silver to enrich their country, knowledge to expand their mind, Empire to grow, and Christianity to spread.
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Spain's desire to preserve their food gave the necessary push to explore to find Asia's spices. In 1488 Portuguese navigator Bartolomeu Dias, upon his return sighted the southern tip of Africa, which became know as the "Cape of Good Hope". It's discovery was a good omen that India could be reached by sea from Europe. Christopher Columbus an Italian explorer, navigator, and colonizer, set sail in 1492, sailing the ocean blue, discovering the New World. Columbus believed he found India but landed in The Americas calling those who lived their "Indians". Many made attempts to reach the riches of India but many failed, encountering the dangers at sea. On May 20, 1498 Vasco de Gama, a Portuguese navigator, became the first European to reach India by Sea. Due to the printing press, in 1532 news spread of Columbus and de Gama's voyages to the New World, causing more European countries to set sail on various
Christopher Columbus, had another story. Columbus was determined to find a direct water route west from Europe to Asia, sadly, he never ecceded. Instead Columbus found “the new world”. “Christopher Columbus made four trips across the Atlantic Ocean from Spain: in 1492, 1493, 1498 and 1502. He was determined to find a direct water route west from Europe to Asia, but he never did.
This happened because they saw the value of Indian Ocean trade and began to colonize for economic purposes. Because of the dark ages, it took a while for the Europeans to discover the Indian Ocean trading. Vasco da Gama’s discovery of the Indian Ocean trade network resulted in Portuguese invasion attempts to capture the port cities, which harmed the once economically prosperous Swahili city states, as well as the commerce of the Indian Ocean itself. However, the attempts to control the commerce of the Indian Ocean by the Portuguese ultimately failed. Globally, just as European involvement increased in the commerce of the Indian Ocean region, Europeans began trading with the Americas during the Columbian Exchange.
In the 16th century, the Portuguese was able to find a route around the Cape of Good Hope that got them involved in the Indian Ocean trade. The trade was dominated by Asian traders who operate from East Africa to India and from Eastern India to Indonesia. The Portuguese replaced these Asian traders to Venetian, Genoese and Catalan traders. Soon in 1507-1515, Portugal conquered carefully calculated cities like Goa, Malacca and Hormuz and set up a base in these cities. The impact the Portuguese bring to the Indian Ocean trade is when they enter the trade for the benefit of wealth and power over Spain and the Muslims, they took control over trading cities with spices through the use of violent force and strategic methods which cause the Portuguese
In the 1500’s and 1600’s, Europe dived into an era of exploration of new trade routes. Exploration carried out by explorers like Cortes, Diaz and Da Gama led Europe into new lands. The main motivations of these explorers were to gather spices and gold. Their countries were infatuated with the spices of Asia and with precious metals. Religion was not the main motivation for European exploration during the 15th and 16th centuries; however, the search for wealth was.
Christopher Columbus displayed persistence in his effort to find a quicker route to India. Despite Columbus’ high hopes in John II for funding, the Portuguese leader turned
The most prominent reason that the Europeans traveled was to find resources. In the times that they explored, trade was a valuable income of goods for most countries, but countries wanted more direct ways of obtaining such materials. “The starting point for the European expansion… had a great deal to do with pepper”(Doc 4). Pepper was a very valuable import, and as such when the Turks began to block trade routes for it around 1470, other Europeans sailed in order to find the source of the spice. In addition, at the end of Columbus’ letter he summarized with “I will procure… a quantity of spices, of cotton, and of mastic… I promise also rhubarb and other sorts of
The Spanish monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella, sponsored Columbus’ journey west in hopes that he would find this new trade route. Instead of reaching the Orient, Columbus unknowingly stumbled on a new continent, the Americas. Thinking he had arrived in India, he traded with the native people and was excited to find new items to exchange. The Native Americans, Christopher Columbus claimed: “were very friendly to us, and perceived that they could be much more easily converted to our holy faith by gentle means rather than by force, I presented them with… trifles of small value, wherein with they were much delighted, and became wonderfully attached to us” (Columbus). This positive trade experience was reported back to Spain and created excitement for further expeditions.
During the 1400’s, the desire of many European countries to reach the Indian subcontinent via aquatic trade routes grew quite dramatically, as land routes were long and filled with many hostile competitors. Nations began searching for various explorers with enough intelligence, courage, and bravado to bring back riches, resources, or land. Around this time, one such explorer, named Christopher Columbus, began pleading with a handful of monarchies for funding of his new, daring voyage; he was going to sail west into the open ocean and reach India exponentially quicker than others who had sailed around the Cape of Good Hope on the southern tip of Africa. In 1491, he managed to convince the Spanish monarchy of his logic, and set sail in 1492 from
The first Europeans came to South America and the Caribbean searching for the East Indies and stumbled across a new world in which they would ravage and dismantle the Native people’s previous way of life. The explorers came with the goal to spread Christianity, but also sought the fortune that the new land would bring European voyagers stumbled across a vast landscape full of flourishing societies, not just roaming tribes, and they saw nothing more than opportunity for their own greed. This greed would lead to the once self-sufficient people becoming slave workers before eventually disappearing from the region altogether. Spanish royalty gave explorer Christopher Columbus the power to travel east in exploration to gain wealth for Spain and
Columbus was not satisfied though. He wanted to sail, so he set off for Ireland and Iceland with the merchant marine in 1477. Columbus continued to sail and trade, traveling down West Africa and learning about Portuguese navigation. In 1484, Columbus asked King John II for aid in crossing the Atlantic, but he was denied. He refused to give up, though.
Columbus’s goal was to reach India, and with the GPS he could have found a faster, more accurate, path to India. Columbus might have went around Cape Good Hope in the southern tip of Africa to go to india without having to go through an entire
Christopher Columbus was Italian, but sailed for the Spaniards. Columbus sailed across the Atlantic Ocean four times, in 1492, 1493, 1498 and 1502. Columbus’s goal was to find a direct sailing route, westward from Europe to Asia. Instead of Columbus finding a route to Asia, he accidentally found the Americas. Columbus needed sponsors to sail across the Atlantic, so he went to France, Portugal, and England, but they all refused to sponsor him.
During the 15th and 16th centuries, leaders of a few European nations sent expeditions out in the hope that explorers would find great wealth and vast undiscovered lands. The Portuguese were the earliest participants in this “Age of Discovery.” Starting in about 1420, Portuguese ships sailed the African coast, carrying spices, gold, slaves and other goods from Africa and Asia to Europe.
In 1492 a man named Christopher Columbus was given the opportunity to find a new way to the kingdom of spice, India. He was given three boats by the Spanish king to sail west instead of east to get to India. Once he arrived although he thought he was in India he had actually arrived in the Caribbean. After this discovery of a new world to the west, many European countries set out to conquer this new land. This new world was inhabited by natives, and once the natives met the Europeans it was downhill.
1000 in a place with many wild grapes, so they named the area Vinland, which is known as Newfoundland today • They were not supported by a powerful nation-state, so they had to leave their settlements and their discovery was lost with only Scandinavian sagas and songs giving them credit • Christian crusaders tried to take over the Holy Land that the Muslims were controlling • Exotic goods were brought over to Europe such as silk, drugs, perfumes, colorful draperies, and spices including sugar, which was rare o These were expensive in Europe, since they had to be shipped from the Spice Islands, which was Indonesia, China, and India through ships and camels o Europeans wanted to find a cheaper route to Asia or create other sources of supply o Europeans Enter Africa • Marco Polo, who was an Italian that is considered a discoverer of the New World, told stories about his travels in China when he came back to Europe in 1295 • He wrote a book that included details of pearl and pagodas, which created more European interest in finding a less expensive way to the East • Portuguese mariners overcame the issue of northerly winds and south-flowing currents around the coast of West Africa that the Europeans would not