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Even before Columbus sailed the Atlantic Ocean in 1492, there was communication going on across the Atlantic. Since 400 C.E. there were groups going out to explore and bridge the gaps between cultures. It is also evident that the Portuguese had their own plans in expansion and conquest, particularly under Vasco da Gama. The cross-cultural contact and exchange was influenced by the rules of kings and queens, different ideas were pushed, those of religion, or those of economy (trade, and land occupied). The conquests of these people during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries were particularly brutal, each one having more deaths and more brutal actions, but in these they were widespread. These documents could be divided into two major viewpoints; from Portuguese, and Spaniards. Under these, they could be separated into two more groups that show positive effects, and negative effects (including the way these areas were captured/ invaded, or the aftereffects).
Between 1420 and 1542 there was so much exploration occurring across many oceans (Pacific/Atlantic). The map of European exploration (Document 2) shows the areas explored and settled by Portuguese, and Spanish. This helps to show how over the centuries growth and expansion, had in fact, grown and expanded. This map only shows the travels of only the Portuguese and Spanish. It could be used to show how certain people under these rulers and how they benefited their rulers' search for conquest but took away everything from the natives. The Portuguese Map of Africa (Document 3) shows that they had a lot of land that they occupied along the coast. This only shows the great conquests of the Portuguese, which would make this biased, and since the mapmaker did not know what was in inland Africa, it was all just what he thought would be seen. This could be because no Europeans had been there. Also there were some Portuguese inhabitants in modern-day Brazil; due to the line drawn by Spain and Portugal to say who...