The Developments During The European Conquest Of The New World

Europe was very influential throughout history. It is a continent that underwent many developments throughout history through conquests, expansions, and innovations, which affected much of the rest of the world. In particular, the European conquest of the New World was very significant, as it expanded their empire overseas so that they ruled over part of the eastern hemisphere as well as the Western. Throughout history, Europe continued to build and expand their empire, influencing many other areas, such as the Americas during the Age of Exploration, which started around the early 15th century.

In 1492, Italian explorer Christopher Columbus set foot in America, and Spain, his sponsor decided to colonize the largest area. When they arrived,
In the 16th century, the Portuguese dominated trade, and became more in touch with Asia. “The first Portuguese ships reached China, and opened direct European trade by sea with that empire” . They dominated the Indian Ocean Trade, with trading posts between the Philippines, the Moluccas, and connections with Brazil and Africa, “viewing their overseas strongholds as the anchorages of a sea-borne trading empire” (Roberts 637). The portuguese not only traded between the outside world and Europe; there were many interactions with Asian countries such as India, the Moluccas, China, Japan, Thailand and more. The Indian Ocean Trade was very profitable, according to Roberts. As well as the Indian Ocean Trade, there was the Trans-Atlantic Trade. This incorporated Africa, as well as the East Coast of the Americas, with the West Coast of Europe. As well as slave trade, they traded salt, gold, ivory, silver, spices and more. One reason this empire building was different is because they had connections with both the western and the eastern hemisphere, making Europe the “first global empire” (Roberts 637). Europe, being a global empire, was exposed to many different populations of peoples. When the Europe became in contact with Africa and the Americas, they began to interbreed, and mixed races emerged in the population. This makes this empire building unique to history as it was done without precedent. “There was much interbreeding, both with the indigenous peoples and with the growing black population of slaves” (Roberts 648). One last example of why this empire building was unique to the history of the world is because it was the first time in history over 90% of the population was killed by disease. Of course, there was the Bubonic Plague around the 14th century in Europe, but that was nowhere near as devastating to the population as the smallpox disease, brought to the New World by