How Did The Americans Become Soon Called The New World

Before the sixteenth century, if an explorer were to sail too far west it was thought that he would fall off the face of the earth. This all changed when Christopher Columbus reached was to be soon called the “New World”. This discovery would serve as a huge stepping-stone for trade around the world as well as colonization in the Americas. Following the discovery, European nations set out to colonize this “New World” in order to produce goods and find riches for their mother countries. This was known as the beginning of mercantilism in the Atlantic. Mercantilism is defined as “a system that saw the world’s economy as fixed, meaning that any one country’s wealth came at the expense of other countries” (Tignor, 482). Colonization of the new
land meant that the Natives and African Americans were forced out of their inhabitants or they were to become enslaved and used for labor. Although Native and African Americans were uprooted from their home land by the Europeans, Atlantic mercantilism brought new ideas and technology to the globe through colonization because it transformed the diets as well as the economies in the new and old world through open trade between Europe, Africa, and the Americas.
Colonization emerged in the Americas in order to make a profit for their mother country; no matter what they produced they were supposed to bring home wealth by any means necessary.
First, when Christopher Columbus stepped foot onto the beach of San Salvador he did not realize the discovery he had made. What he had done was open up a new world of riches. The origins of colonization in the new world were violent. Conquest by the Spaniards in Mesoamerica set the foundation for colonization. These conquistadors were able to take over empires such as the Aztecs and Incas simply because of their advanced weaponry that the natives had never seen before. Sharp steel swords and gunpowder were no match for their wooden spears and arrows. Native Americans were forced to leave their homes and the ones who stayed were captured and used as labor for mining and farming. The Spanish had found the gold and silver they were looking for, they also came across new resources and crops such as potatoes and corn that would expand the population in Afro-Eurasia (Tignor, 455). Once word spread through Europe about these new discoveries, rival countries like England, France, and the Dutch were rushing to explore the New World. These conquests in the Americas were cruel, but they led to something far much greater that would benefit the new and old
world.
In the course of conquest in the New World, settlers discovered new crops to exchange with Europe. Some of the crops that would come from the New World were potatoes, corn, peanuts, and maize. In return, Europe would trade wheat, cattle, horses, slaves, and even bring over diseases on accident such as small pox and measles (Lecture 2). This tradeoff is known as the Columbian exchange. It didn’t take long for this exchange to transform the economies and diets of the new and old worlds. The new foods from the Columbian Exchange greatly improved the diets of the Europeans not only because of the different varieties of food, but also there was a much larger supply of it. The upscale in the supply of food also generated more revenue for the mother countries. Another key component, this led to a population growth across both the new and old world. People were more likely to live based on the resources that were available to them and they were less likely to die from starvation. Which meant that more money was being circulated throughout the economy. This source of food did not come at a small price. As indentured servants started to become more expensive to obtain, plantation owners and slave traders had to resort to a new source labor.
Finally, the third country added to the trading system was Africa.
They brought cheap labor to the table allowing for the plantation owners and merchants to seek an even greater profit. African Americans were not willing to just up and leave their families and homelands. Even their own people took them against their will. A secret male society in Africa called the Epke, would promise deliveries of their people who would not pay off any debt they might have had to European slave traders. For every one European that was coming to the Americas, four African Americans also voyaged to the new world (Lecture 3). Not to mention that Europeans were coming voluntarily and the poor Africans were involuntarily uprooted. These captured slaves were taken and held in vessels below deck until they were full. It could take weeks for the slave vessels to reach maximum capacity and in most cases human carcasses filled the floors before departure. “Crew members tossed dead Africans overboard as they loaded on other Africans from the shore” (Tignor, 488). This goes to show that the Europeans were strictly for profit and did not treat the Africans as civilized human beings, but as objects. Primarily, the Europeans sought out to bring back mostly adult males to the Americas because they were the dominant labor force. They did include females in early trade for household work. It wasn’t until later that slavers realized they would need more females in the Americas so that families could reproduce.
This led to even more trips back to Africa for captives, especially for the Caribbean Islands where the death rates were rapidly increasing because of harsh conditions and lack of nutrition in their diets (Tignor, 492). Atlantic Mercantilism emerged because of the belief to find new resources and riches such as gold and silver in the Americas. These ideas originated from the Spanish conquests in the Aztec and Incan Empires based on the resources that were discovered. New cash crops were also found which aided the people back in Afro-Eurasia. The supply of new foods would enhance the diets of families. Also, population grew in the homelands because people were more likely to survive based on the steady flow of food through the Columbian Exchange. This had an effect on Africans as well. Labor was not cheap coming from Europe, slavers had to resort to a cheaper source of workers. This added Africa as the third leg of the Columbian Exchange, otherwise known as the Triangle Trade. African Americans were being uprooted from their mainland and forced to work on plantations in the new world. Many had died on the voyage over but that just made the Europeans come back for more workers. The Americas offered land and minerals to the Atlantic system. As for the Europeans, they brought military power and technology to make sure these plantations were running efficiently so that they could seek the best possible gain for their country (Tignor, 462). Although there were consequences to mercantilism in the Atlantic, the pros outweighed the cons and without it we would not be the world that we have become today.