How Did Christopher Columbus Influence On American History

1. Since the beginning of time people have engaged in trade because of the vast resources other countries and people have to offer. As everyone can see in the first class lecture, people have been trading before the discovery of Columbus. Countries like Mesopotamia, India, and China were trading long before Columbus discovered the “new world”. At the time trade was mostly focused in the Mediterranean and Indian Ocean where most of these great nation were located. It is clear that trading has been happening for a long time and has influenced American history and its people to expand their markets and economy beyond their borders.
To continue, when Columbus sailed out to discover a shorter trading route to India he stumbled on to South America and from that point on things changed European history. Columbus’s journey lead to far greater discovery then anyone could have hoped for. The new world opened up a world for more discovery and also an expanded trading to a larger scale. For example later the triangular trade was established and the involvement of the “new world” in trade increased on a global scale.

European saw the “new world” as an opportunity to start over and work for a better tomorrow. As people began to migrate to the “new world” new religious, political and economic ideas began to sprout. Among others these ideas started to shape the American history people now take part in and believe in. Later on as the first thirteen colonies were established and declared their independence from Britain, America began to gain importance and respect as a new nation. People can’t deny that all of the new values and ideas were greatly influenced by maritime events like trade and exchange of ideas across the Atlantic