When the new world was discovered, everyone wanted the land. Settlers crossed the Atlantic for different reasons, these reasons were why they settled. Their government took different approaches to their colonizing efforts. France and Spain had dictatorial kings whose rule was absolute, and the English came from England. The different reasons they came are, sources of colonial population, economic, and relations with the Native Americans.
All three of these are part of being a conqueror in some way. When the Europeans would conquer new land they would try to change the religion to Christianity just like when missionaries would go to promote a religion and when they conquered it would help them trade more because of new resources in their new claimed land and closer countries to trade with. In the age of exploration, for the Europeans it was all about claiming as much land as possible for themselves and their countries before other countries discovered these places which is why Europeans are
At first, they wanted to be able to live in peace with the Native Americans because they needed their help to get food. They settlers were also outnumbered by the Native Americans, so fighting them would be pointless, for their fate would not be bright. Even though the settlers knew this, problems began to rise right away. The main conflict between the Native Americans and the European settlers was the idea they had in mind about the land. Because of these different thought processes, conflict between Native Americans and European settlers went on for hundreds of years.
Europeans conquered and claimed the territories and greatly increased their prosperity and power, and Christianity spread to a whole new hemisphere. Portugal and Spain even presumed to divide the world in two by seeking the Pope's blessing on the Treaty of Tordesillas, which drew a line through north and south through the Atlantic, giving Portugal the lands east and Spain the lands west. Portugal actually lost in the long run because the lands that they "received" were already claimed by empires that did not recognize the Portuguese claims. The French and English did not arrive in the Americas until the 17th century, but when they did, they claimed much of North America in areas that the Spanish did not go. The trade routes that appeared during this era in the Atlantic Ocean were collectively known as the Great Circuit.
Although this was selfish, Europe gained wealth and power because of the imperialism. In document A there was increasing nationalism in Europe, and in document B Europeans wanted riches and glory which lead to competition in Europe. They wanted to keep up with their neighbors and this was important to them. Europeans wanted African materials like rubber which wasn't available to them in Europe, they also wanted to create new markets for their goods, this would have led them to great wealth for their nations. Europeans were able to use natural resources to make money, or also
The European powers only had the slave trade with the Africans along the shores of West Africa and African leaders still ruled most continent. According to Saul David, “Until the 19th century, Britain and the other European powers confined their imperial ambitions in Africa to the odd coastal outpost from which they could exert their economic and military influence…. As late as the 1870s, only 10% of the continent was under direct European control....” Joshua D. Settles in his research titled The Impact of Colonialism on African Economic Development also indicates that African economies were advancing in various fields, especially in the trade aspect. Nonetheless, everything changed in the late 1900s. With the development of technology and the discovery of quinine, the European powers started to expand their territories in Africa.
The Spanish exploration and colonisation made both a positive and negative impact on Latin America. The arrival of the Spanish explorers to the new world made a big change and they are the reason Latin America looks the way it does today. However these people were ruthless and were the tyrants of the new world. One of Spain’s major foreign policy objectives since the advent of democracy has been to increase its influence in Latin America. Spain has had interest in this area due to historical ties and a common linguistic, cultural and religious heritage (Countrystudies.us, 2017).
People died from easily curable diseases. It is a mistake to assume that the natives of the Americas lived as the famed “noble savages” of Rousseau—there stood empires and armies just as willing as the gold-thirsty Spanish to squash their enemies and take captives and take advantage of the poor and the outcasts. Yes, European colonialist did enslave and mistreat the indigenous population, did spread new diseases, did enforce a strict social caste; but colonialism by no means introduced violence and suffering to the Americas—it was simply a continuation of the pattern of fallen humans. Along with the continuation of the human habit of exploration, exploitation, and greed, European colonialism also brought new technologies. Never before had natives seen a wheel until
The livestock also made the soil more compact causing the soil to carry less water, making the land a less inhabitable environment for plants. This resulted in the Native Americans losing their crops. They also eventually had to start raising livestock and doing other European agricultural practices because, “Hunting too became difficult. Adjacent colonial settlements eventually tried to restrict Indian hunting on English land, and such key food sources as deer became hard to obtain.” (Cronon 103). When the Europeans noticed the Native Americans starting to lack the resources that they relied on, they took advantage of it.
When Europeans discovered the new world, the whole world changed. The new world was named the Americas and it changed greatly when the Europeans discovered it. The Natives that inhabited the Americas were not happy with the new foreigners that had settled in their country. In Plymouth Plantation by William Bradford, the Europeans sailed to the new world and brought many new items that the Native Americans had never seen before. In Coming of Age in the Dawnland by Charles C. Mann, in this story, it talks about the differences between the Europeans and Native Americans, and the differences between the multiple Native American tribes.