Exploration and the New World

Exploration and the New World From Richard Bulliet et al., The Earth and Its Peoples, v. 2, 5th edn (Wadsworth/Cengage, 2012), p. 382 The harsh waters of the Atlantic Ocean kept the Americas isolated from the rest of the world for many years. A few sailing attempts were made were made in Atlantic but none were successful, except for the Vikings who first found North America in 986 and Genoese and Portuguese explorers who discovered the islands of Madeira, the Azores, and the Canaries in the fourteenth century. It all started from an Italian sailing for the Portuguese and Spain named Christopher Columbus who dreams were to find a shorter route to the riches of the East Indies but mistakenly finding his way to what is called the East Indies in 1492. This discover led to exploration of new lands and cultures of the New World. This came with new global interactions, slavery, forced conversions, diseases such as the smallpox, and hostility between the new and the old world people. It also came with the Columbian exchange between the new and old world. Columbus discovers convinced other explorers of Portugal and Spain that these were new lands. Which brought over Amerigo Vespucci to explore and eventually naming the new continents after him “America”. (From Richard Bulliet et al., The Earth and Its Peoples, v. 2, 5th edn (Wadsworth/Cengage, 2012), pg. 364). In the Americas there were already people living there, like the Arawak, the Aztecs of Mexico City, and the Incas of Peru. The first European settlers in the Caribbean wanted to kill and steal rather than trade. This practice continued on to more powerful Amerindian kingdoms on the mainland. (From Richard Bulliet et al., The Earth and Its Peoples, v. 2, 5th edn (Wadsworth/Cengage, 2012), pg. 371). Columbus and his settlers and missionaries stole gold, food, raped women provoking the Arawak to war in 1495. Spaniards killed tens of thousands of Arawak because they the advantage of horses and weapons. They forced survivors to pay a heavy tax in gold, spun cotton, and food, if failed they faced forced labor. (From Richard Bulliet et al., The Earth and Its Peoples, v. 2, 5th edn (Wadsworth/Cengage, 2012), pg. 371). Also, cattles, goats, and pigs that the settlers brought over ate Arawak food crops causing death from famine and disease. Another explorer of the Americas was Hernan Cortez who the Aztecs came across in 1519. Cortez left Cuba with six hundred soldiers and plenty of weapons in search for slaves and trade on the Mexican mainland. He soon learned about the Aztec Empire in central Mexico and headed there. The Aztecs thought Cortez was a legendary ruler named Quetzalcoatl that returned to earth, so the Aztec emperor Moctezuma the 2nd welcomed him with gifts and flowers. But Cortez took the emperor prisoner in his own palace and stole all of his treasure. The Aztecs fought back killing thousands and sacrificing prisoners and horses. However, the Aztecs couldn’t hold on due the smallpox epidemic that an infected Cortez member transmitted to Mexico in 1519. It was remembered as a disease that spread over the people as a great destruction. (From Richard Bulliet et al., The Earth and Its Peoples, v. 2, 5th edn (Wadsworth/Cengage, 2012), pg. 373). Another great empire was also captured by the Spaniards in 1532, which was the Inca Empire of Peru south of the equator. Inca rulers were well-organized, had rich gold and silver mines, and was great in agriculture. Unfortunately, the smallpox disease had already taken lives before the Spaniards even reached Peru, including the emperor between 1524 and 1527. Francisco Pizarro was the man that defeated the Inca Empire in November 1532 with boldness, cannons and swords. He seized treasure and killed the emperor of Inca Atahualpa by giving him two ways of death to choose from. (From Richard Bulliet et al., The Earth and Its Peoples, v. 2, 5th edn (Wadsworth/Cengage, 2012), pg. 373). The settlement of the Europeans created an exchange of plants, animals, diseases, and technologies between the Americas and the rest of the world known as the Columbian Exchange. (From Richard Bulliet et al., The Earth and Its Peoples, v. 2, 5th edn (Wadsworth/Cengage, 2012), pg. 374). Things like tomatoes, maize, potatoes, squash, chocolate, tobacco and cassava which became the most important came from the new world into the old world. Things like sheep, horses, new cattle, sugar, pigs and rice came from the old world into the new world. This exchange between worlds changed diets and lifestyles around the world. (From Richard Bulliet et al., The Earth and Its Peoples, v. 2, 5th edn (Wadsworth/Cengage, 2012), pg. 373). The diseases that came with this exchange were the smallpox, measles, the mumps and syphilis that made its way cross the Atlantic from west to east. They were more fatal to the new world because they lacked immunity to these new introduced diseases.