Scholars coined the 16th and 17th century as the age of discovery, as Europeans embarked in a journey that leads to the discovery of new territories. The first encounters of Europeans with other groups was with the Islamic Arabs, and they remained to be the only group that was known to the Europeans for centuries. However, further expansion during the 16th century resulted in the discovery of the major regions that were unknown to Europeans in the past. First, there were Spain and Portugal whose objective in sending several explorations was to claim new territories for the expansion of their empire, spread Christianity, and to discover new regions from where they can generate natural resources (Newit, 2010). The Spanish colonialist has diverse views as to how to treat the indigenous people that they encountered, for example, there are those who view them as savages while some others thought that they are humans that have the capacity to acquire the European civilization (Abbattosta, 2011).
It was during the latter part of the 16th century, when England, France and the Netherlands competed in discovering new territories. One among the objective of expanding to other territories was the need to find other markets for goods that are produced from these countries, as well as to find regions from where to source raw materials. For England, the new territories will also serve to accommodate people from home and to “ensure that they would contribute to the nation’s wealth” (Davis and Mintz, 1999). Included in the objective of these explorers was the spread of Christianity in other parts of the world. Consequently, while some of the indigenous people accepted them and embraced Christianity, still some settlement efforts in the new territory resulted in the conflict with the native tribes.
References
Abbattista, G. (2011). European encounters in the age of expansion. Retrieved from http://ieg-ego.eu/en/threads/backgrounds/european-encounters/guido-abbattista-european-encounters-in-the-age-of-expansion#Preliminaryremarks
Davis, D., & Mintz, S. (1999). The boisterous sea of liberty: A documentary history from discovery through the civil war. Oxford University Press.
Newitt, M. (2010). The Portuguese in West Africa, 1415-1670: A documentary history.
