DISCOVERY AND COLONIZATION 1497-1650.
Why did the European powers begin at this time to spread their influence and power across the globe?.
1. The decline of Feudalism and the rise of the National State.
2. The coinciding intellectual revolution. That is the fact that there is a revival of learning.
3. With the rise of the National State there is also a rise in trade between nations.
4. The protestant reformation which created religious diversity and a desire by some people to rid themselves of Catholicism.
5. And the natural human characteristics of greed conquest, racism and slavery.
6. The return of Marco Polo from the Orient with stories of fabulous riches of gems, precious metals and spices.
Columbus.
Columbus fascinated with the Orient believed that by sailing West from Europe that he could find a new trade route to the Orient. --He began to search for a nation that would sponsor an expedition to find it.
--In 1482 he persuaded the King of Spain to finance an expedition to find a trade route to the Orient and on the 2 August he set sail.
They found the Bahamas and ring of Islands off Cuba, which he called Hispania. Believing that he had found the outskirts of the Orient he returned to Spain. .
--He made two more voyages back to Hispania but never did he see the coast of the South or North American continent.
The discovery of the Americas was left to Amerigo Vespucci, who led a Portuguese expedition up the South American coast.
--It was a latinization of his first name that was used to label the new continent "America.".
The Biological Revolution.
The expeditions made contact with Indians which inhabited these lands and what insued was nothing more than a watershed in the development of the world as we know it today.
--It was the the introduction of American Indian Corn, sweet and white potatoes, and beans from Lima to Kidney and others.
--Corn Potatoes spread quickly throughout the world.
Significance.