The European Conquest of the Americas
The European Conquest of The Americas
One of the primary reasons for exploration was the search for the Northwest Passage, an imaginary path that could be used to reach Asia without having to go around Africa, or through the Middle East. The Panamanians proved that travel was possible around Africa with a new kind of boat that utilized wind better, but the Spaniards and other Europeans were more interested in a more direct approach to reaching Asia. So they began to head westward. The Queen of Spain commissioned Christopher Columbus to lead an expedition westward to reach Asia, and he instead stumbled upon the most successful failure in history, The Americas. He reached the islands of the Bahamas, and thinking that he was indeed in the Indies, he named the inhabitants Indians. Ironically, after making the greatest discovery of the past millennium, his tombstone marked him as a failure, due to the lack of the Northwest Passage. Once the queen of Spain realized the goldmine (quite literally), that was before her, she sent basically an entire army of conquistadors to seize the assets of the natives, and secure it for the Spanish empire. The three “G”s are what the Spanish conquistadors sought after. God, Gold, and Glory, all of which they could find in the native inhabitants possession. They “harvested” the souls of the natives by converting them (whether they liked it or not) to Catholicism, and at the same time, took all of their gold and silver, and for this cultural rape, they got their precious glory. Even though the natives were devastated by the diseases brought by the Europeans, and the loss of all natural resources, and the loss of culture, and the loss of their religion, language, land, and dignity, they submitted to the conquerors. Now let’s discuss for a little bit, the real discoverers of the new world, who aren’t credited for the discovery, but definitely should be. There are many different accounts of why Lief Ericson traveled to the new
One of the primary reasons for exploration was the search for the Northwest Passage, an imaginary path that could be used to reach Asia without having to go around Africa, or through the Middle East. The Panamanians proved that travel was possible around Africa with a new kind of boat that utilized wind better, but the Spaniards and other Europeans were more interested in a more direct approach to reaching Asia. So they began to head westward. The Queen of Spain commissioned Christopher Columbus to lead an expedition westward to reach Asia, and he instead stumbled upon the most successful failure in history, The Americas. He reached the islands of the Bahamas, and thinking that he was indeed in the Indies, he named the inhabitants Indians. Ironically, after making the greatest discovery of the past millennium, his tombstone marked him as a failure, due to the lack of the Northwest Passage. Once the queen of Spain realized the goldmine (quite literally), that was before her, she sent basically an entire army of conquistadors to seize the assets of the natives, and secure it for the Spanish empire. The three “G”s are what the Spanish conquistadors sought after. God, Gold, and Glory, all of which they could find in the native inhabitants possession. They “harvested” the souls of the natives by converting them (whether they liked it or not) to Catholicism, and at the same time, took all of their gold and silver, and for this cultural rape, they got their precious glory. Even though the natives were devastated by the diseases brought by the Europeans, and the loss of all natural resources, and the loss of culture, and the loss of their religion, language, land, and dignity, they submitted to the conquerors. Now let’s discuss for a little bit, the real discoverers of the new world, who aren’t credited for the discovery, but definitely should be. There are many different accounts of why Lief Ericson traveled to the new