American History

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American History

Why were Europeans less likely to encounter the American continents than people from China or the Arab World were before the end of the 15th century?

During this time, America had not yet been discovered by the Europeans. The Europeans were concentrating with China, who had the major trade roots, unlike America, which had not yet been discovered. There was a lot of wealth in these countries as compared to America where nobody knew what was there. China had a lot of gold, which the European had interest in. They were more interested in making profits more than taking care of there conquest therefore the chance of exploring further was difficult. The earlier settlers of the American continent were the Native Americans who isolated themselves from the rest of the world hence making it difficult for the Europeans to discover it. Moreover, the Europeans were more interested in discovering than in development. They had already begun settled for what they had in there land, which was a lucrative business.

What were the changes that took place in Europe between the years 1000 and 1500 that made this encounter more likely?

The European nations started becoming wealthy and this led to inflation in there nations. This meant that they had to look for alternatives to spread there wealth. At this point, they were searching for alternative routes to Asia when they discovered America. In addition to this, the Europeans discovered slave trade from the Africans and they became interested. The slaves were used in the cultivation of land or working in the plantations and it is for this reason that the Europeans moved towards America in search of land. On the other hand, some of the Asians and Arabs were revolting against colonization and winning these wars. Because of this, the Europeans had to search for other places to conquer leading them to America. The vulnerability of the inhabitants of America made it easy for the Europeans to conquer and acquire land in which they were searching for.

How did the encounter with America change Europe?

They changed from the medieval era to the era of development. The European nations had to develop this newfound continent, which had not yet been developed. Additionally, due to the inflation, they had to look for other means of income hence leading to the birth of manufacturing industries. This meant that for trade to continue, some nations had to change from what they were used to trade with, that is, gold and had to produce other goods, which were not available. Besides this, the European nations started scrambling for these lands leading to wars. Due to these wars, they started declaring major sea lines where major trade routes were passing and those that were strategically located to their advantage. Moreover, the population increased and therefore the need for more land and trade had to increase steadily. In addition to this, the property owners who had rented their land, started fencing their piece of land and rearing ship because of the inflation. This also led to the birth of a new religion in Europe, which was called Protestantism

How did it change Spain?

There was a lot of migration by the people of Spain to America therefore Spain’s population decreased. Many people migrated to America in the belief of searching for greener pastures. The Spanish saw the Native Americans as a resource since they could work for them and improve there productivity in the industries. This led to the growth of economy on the part of Spain. New rules were created to accommodate the new states that were now colonies of Spain. They converted the natives from their tradition religion to being Catholics and this was done by their priests. This conquering of America led to the creation of new states. This showed that Spain had power. Besides this it made Spain to have enemies of war who were revolting against their rules like England because they did not like their religion, Catholic, therefore revolting.