blog IV part I

Author: Kevin M. Schultz Source: Hist2 Pages: 22-28 (my summary was too long so I had to cut it short) European expansion and exploitation by sea really started with Portugal’s Prince Henry the Navigator search for a ship passable way to India (A.K.A. The Orient). Vasco da Gama demonstrated the European view that God made the rest of the world for European’s pleasure when he said, “You owe great thanks to God, for having brought you to a country holding such riches!” By the 1500s the Portuguese had already started growing sugarcane in São Tomé setting up the world’s first recorded economy dependent on using African slaves as human harvesters. European nations, being the economically aware neighbors they were at the time, saw Portugal’s growing economic gains from using a mandate from heaven as an excuse to exploit tribal peoples and thought(after some prodding from Christopher Columbus), why don't we cash in on that too? So those countries politically and financially stable enough at the time, I mean that country (i.e. Spain), decided now was the time to find some relatively easily exploitable people or maybe even a new way to the Orient. Thus, Spain sent Columbus and his crazy ideas about the earth being round to sea with three ships, and on October 12th 1492 the islands now known as the Bahamas. Columbus of course thought he had made it to some odd part of India or at least Asia. Side note: Leif Ericson and bunch of Scandinavian explorers beat him to North America by about 500 years. Columbus eager to tell the world that he was not crazy and the world was actually round grabbed some local inhabitants, saying, “They ought to be good servants”, and some other “treasures” and headed back. Word of the western passage spread fast and soon every sailor was trying to get the cash together for a voyage. The first person to call the place a “new world” was Amerigo Vespucci, and that is how the Americas got their name (I do not know about you, but I think it is somewhat anti-climatic). Anyway there were so many people tossing their explore hats the metaphorical ring that historians call this period “the ‘Age of Exploration.’” After Columbus’ trip Spain, predictably, claimed all of North America and Portugal, predictably, said “No Way!” It almost came to blows, which might have saved the Americas from conquest for a bit longer, when the all-knowing Pope Alexander VI drew a North-South line on a map and said “Portugal you get all the stuff on the right Spain the stuff on the left.” I am guessing he was still struggling with the whole “the Earth is round” concept. This furthered the European idea that god was on their side and that the indigenous people were just sort of holding the land for them. Subsequently, Spain set out to found some colonies in North America, partially for the fortunes it should amass them and partially to say they did it before Portugal. This “began one of the bloodiest chapters in the world’s history”, the Spanish apparently brought some smallpox (and other things) to the New World party. The disease sharing that took place during that period of exportation, along with some warfare, killed as much as 20% of the world’s human population at the time. However, given that one of their settlements, Hispaniola, was producing $1 million worth of gold alone every year, we can safely say that Spain really did not care about the sudden decrease in population. With the triple threat of Guns, Germs and Steel, European nations encountered very few real military challenges in the warmer America’s (southern Colorado and south). Except, that is, when they decided to duke it out with other European nations (France V. Spain for Florida). Spain’s new found wealth caused quite a bit of inflation back home, this caused poor people to get poorer. Really poor people chose to move to the Americas for a better life (causing the cycle to repeat). Anyway, time for a vocab. word: The Columbian Exchange was the swapping of biological things of all sorts from Europe to Africa the Americas in trade. This included but was not limited by: Microbes, plants, bugs, viruses, people, pets etc. which of course killed more people and made more slaves. However, it can also be blamed for coffee and chocolate, so don't hate on it too much.