Spanish Exploration And European Exploration

Vasco Nunez de Balboa is a Spanish conquistador who spent many years exploring the Isthmus of Panama and the surrounding areas in the early 1500’s. Balboa was sent to explore anywhere in the New World as long as another explorer was of had not already explored there. The only other request of Balboa was that he had to give one fifth of the riches he found to Spain. We believe that Balboa’s personal motives in exploring this area were to take over the land and acquire gold and other riches. He would stop at nothing to acquire these riches. Balboa claims that he gave a choice to the natives and he may claim that he and his men were only defending themselves, but this is not the case.

The massive amounts of gold and silver exported back to Europe greatly enriched the Spanish monarchy and upper class, but drastically hurt the poor and common people of Spain. What little wealth the lower class had was greatly inflated as silver and gold flooded into the markets. Throughout the century of Spanish conquest, 180 tons of gold and 16,000 tons of silver were sent to Spain from the New World (Hewitt & Lawson, 2014, 1.16). Much of the acquired wealth was used to finance the Spanish invasions of Italy and Portugal. Although the Columbian Exchange changed the Old and New World in positive ways, it also ignited wars on three continents, decimated millions by disease, and further increased demand for African slaves.

Historians differ on what they think about the net result of the European arrival in the New World. Considering that the Columbian Exchange, which refers to “exchange of plants, animals, people, disease, and culture between Afro-Eurasia and the Americas after Columbus sailed to the Americas in 1492,” led to possibly tens of millions of deaths on the side of the American Indians, but also enabled agricultural and technological trade (Henretta et al. 42), I cannot help but reflect on whether the effects should be addressed as a historical or a moral question. The impact that European contact had on the indigenous populations of North America should be understood as a moral question because first, treating it as a historical question is difficult due to lack of reliable historical evidence; second, the meaning of compelling historical claims is contestable as the academic historian perspective tends to view the American Indian oral history as invalid; and finally, what happened to the native Indians is morally repulsive and must be discussed as such.

Conquistador, written by Buddy Levy about the famous ventures of Hernan Cortes, places the reader in the 16th century, or the era c.1450-c. 1750 ce. During this time, the idea of exploration was spreading quickly, as kingdoms and empires in Europe sought to expand their territory. Portugal, with Spain following after, led the way for exploration as they headed south. Spain, however, ventured west, driven by a patriotic attitude of expanding past their borders. Levy tells the story of Hernan Cortes, originally setting sail from Spain, as he sailed from Cuba to the shores of Mexico in 1519, eager about the discovery of new lands. Cortes, as well as many other explorers during this time, was inspired by the Three G’s: God, gold, and glory. He planned to conquer the new lands for Spain, to convert the natives to Catholicism, and to obtain the riches of the land, mostly gold.

In the 16th Century, Spain became one of the European forces to reckon with. To expand even further globally, Spanish conquistadors were sent abroad to discover lands, riches, and North America and its civilizations. When the Spanish and Native American groups met one another, they judged each other, as they were both unfamiliar with the people that stood before them. The Native American and Spanish views and opinions of one another are more similar than different because when meeting and getting to know each other, neither the Spaniards nor the Native Americans saw the other group of people as human. Both groups of people thought of one another as barbaric monsters and were confused and amazed by each other’s cultures. But, even though both

European explorers and conquistadors during the age of exploration were motivated by three things: God, gold and glory. The two most prominent of the three between 1492 and 1607 were gold and glory. Beginning in 1492 gold motivated many explorers, from Christopher Columbus’s voyage to the New World to the Virginia Company’s colonization of America. Gold is a symbol for wealth, and many explorers soon realized the New World’s potential for wealth. The Spanish’s interest in wealth inspired Columbus’s expedition in the first place, as he was sent to India to trade for spices. Columbus reportedly traded pieces of his ship for gold, and was given a golden mask by a native chief. He later said in court (believing he had reached India) “There are many spices, and great mines of gold and other metals…”. After learning of the untapped natural resources and potential for wealth, European nations created an exploration frenzy, with constant voyages to the new world. The nations which sponsored these expeditions would give the explorers a cut of all the gold they found, which helped motivate conquistadors to make the long and treacherous journey to the New World. These explorers knew gold would bring wealth and power to them and their country, in addition to achieving tremendous glory for both.

Many countries from Europe decided to explore America, and ultimately colonize. There was excitement for new beginnings and profit. The Spanish, French, and English all wanted to escape their past and find wealth and opportunity in the “New World”. The three countries listed above all shared similar desires in coming to America but had a different view on how they would achieve them. although the countries differed in how each colony was defined.

The Iroquois creation story is a renowned Native American myth written by a Tuscarora historian, David Cusick. He is also the author of David Cusick’s Sketches of Ancient History of the Six Nations, which is known to be the first Indian-written history printed in the English language (Radus). The Iroquois creation myth exists in twenty-five other versions. It describes how the world was created from the Native American perspective. It begins with a sky woman who falls down into the dark world. She is pregnant with twins. Sky woman lands on a turtles back, which ends up growing and becomes a part of island with time. The sky woman gives birth to twin boys, the good mind, and the bad mind. She dies when the bad mind decides to come out of her

The culture of the natives was seen as barbaric by the European explorers as many native societies in the New World had a polytheistic religion in which they worshipped many different gods, and practiced human sacrifice such as the Aztecs who sacrificed people to their gods for favor. Hernan Cortes expresses this belief in a letter to Charles V, saying “they have a custom….abominable….deserving of punishment….they take [people]....[and] take out their hearts and entrails….as a sacrifice to their gods” (Doc 1). Cortes no doubt had this viewpoint because he was a Christian and part of his time spent with the

The development of agriculture experienced a diversification among the people of the region. It also experienced in the Northwest an economic development as well as social diversification and the developing of hunting and foraging.

Europe, such as Spain, France, and England, have had different language, culture, political system, religion and more, which they developed by themselves in their civilization. In the late 1400s to 1500s, Europeans started the colonization and economic competitions each other between countries to get more assets since their resources and lands were limited and not enough. At that time, Spaniards and French had the same purpose for exploring the New World such as pursuing wealth, winning the economic competition, but they approached to Native Americans in different ways. The difference between these two countries when they encounter with Indians was the relationship with Native Americans.

Christopher Columbus and Hernan Cortes were both famous Spanish adventurers during the Age of Exploration. When the explorers came upon land, they encountered two different cultures. In 1492, Columbus encountered the Taino people, and in 1520, Cortes encountered the Aztecs. The two cultures that the men encountered were different in more ways than they were similar in regards to how the natives treated the men, what weapons they had and their war-like behavior, their technologically advancements, their housing and architectural structures, and even their religion.

Americas. In Central and South America, the Maya, Aztec, and Inca had a huge domain that included large cities with the complex framework of roads, irrigation systems, and controlled government structures. The European explorers and America’s original occupants had both positive and negative impact upon each other. Therefore, it is essential to raise the question on how European exploration and colonization influenced cultural collisions and interactions between Europeans, Africans, and Native Americans.

French Exploration began about forty years after Columbus sailed to the new world. They hoped to find a passageway that would get them to the east to trade, through America, Along with spreading Christianity with the natives and claiming land. The French found that Furs were a large thing on the trade market. So fur trading became a huge part in French History in America.

I think the role of technology in European explorations was so so important. If you think about it without technology they wouldn 't have made it that far. Some of the technology they had was like the ships without the ships Europe wouldn 't have conquered the world. Without the ships none of the explorations would have occurred. They had a lot of cause to why to explore and without the technology that made it way easier for them, they wouldn 't have made it so far.