Essay On The Age Of Discovery

On the eve of the European Age of Discovery (Age of Exploration), the transatlantic world was characterized with wars and competition among neighboring countries. There were constant wars between France, Portugal and Spain due to conflicts arising from the quest for control over territories. During this period, there was limited trade since the countries in the transatlantic world had almost similar resources and products and most of these products were consumed locally.
However, between the mid fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, a period called the Age of Discovery or the Age of Exploration, European sailors and ships left the coastal waters of the Old World and got on board to make their adventure of the large green sea of darkness. The Portuguese ships were the first to take off followed by the Spanish, and later came the French, the British and the Dutch ships in the mid sixteenth century in a bid to discover the other parts of the world. The costs of these adventures were minimal, but they had very high risks. When they arrived at their destinations, the Europeans found the native populations and were faced with the first task of establishing relations with them. They discovered valuable resources among the natives and turned their exploration to exploitation of the natives.
During the Age of Discovery, the initial motives of the Europeans were to increase mobility, offer government sponsorships, gain money from trade. However, these were the minor reasons. Their main intension and that which they used to penetrate the territories was religion. Most of them came to these areas as missionaries. The Age of Discovery transformed the economic, political and social status of the transatlantic world. The Eurocentric worldview, which refers to the view that Europe, is at the height of moral and cultural civilization has been a factor that has helped the transatlantic world to gain prestige over the other nations of the world. Nevertheless, according to the European view, the East is associated with misery, sin, and, wealth; this is referred to as orientalism.
The Aztec and the Incas never welcomed strangers into their empires. However, the Spaniards managed to enter into their cities and later the conquistadors overcame the vast empires. According to their religious beliefs, the Aztecs, and Incas feared for the end of time and had hoped that god would punish them. Therefore, when the Spaniards arrived in their land, they believed that Quetzalcoatl had kept his promise and had returned, and they treated the Spaniards as their gods. The Spaniards initially came into these empires seeking to transform the religious beliefs of the later into Catholic, which they succeeded. The Portuguese also travelled to Japan and used Christianity and missionary work to penetrate into the native territories. Through such methods, the Europeans managed to penetrate alien territory and gain control over them.
As the exploration and exploitation continued, slavery began and the Europeans were transporting slaves back to their countries to work in plantations and firms. They also used these slaves to work in their own land without pay. The slaves received bad treatments and most of them died. For instance, when 500 slaves were being ferried to Spain, the ill treatment they received led to the death of 300 hundred slaves with some of them being thrown out of the ships once they became weak. The strategies that the Europeans used to defeat the vast empires included diseases such as measles to children, smallpox, and syphilis, which were unfamiliar to the native communities.
During the Age of Discovery, the visiting Europeans discovered valuables in the native territories. These discoveries included gold, silver, and other mineral as well as productive land, where they planted different crops like wheat, barley, cocaine plants, and other crops which they exchanged for petty goods like clothes and food. At other times, the Europeans did not have to pay the natives for the goods they took from their land.
The valuables that were discovered and extracted from the native lands were channeled back to Europe to be used for manufacturing purposes in their industries. The Europeans also traded these goods with other wealthy nations, which enriched their economies. After taking control of the native countries, the Europeans colonized the former, and imposed their restrictions. For instance, Spanish colonies started paying dividends to the Spanish Empire for the metals mined in Central and South America. Several other European nations also forced their colonies to remit taxes and dividends to their European governments, thereby enriching their economies.
On the religious and social fronts, the Age of Discovery transformed the transatlantic world’s cultural and social view of the other parts of the world. They never had experience with the other parts of the world before this time. However, after the encounter, the transatlantic world changed their perception of the world and categorized regions according to several factors such as resources, culture and character. The East proved stubborn of all territories. Due to the interactions, the Western world also adopted some of the destination cultures according to the different destinations that they arrived in them. By the end of the discovery era, they had created trade routes and relations with their colonies, which continued even after the invasions. Some of these trade route are still operational to date.