The Age of Exploration The age of exploration was one of the most significant periods in history. It was influenced by the time renaissance and Crusades and ended with the Columbian Exchange and discovery of America. The British, Spanish, and Portuguese were the main explorers of this time. After it was discovered that there were spices in Asia through trading and the Crusades, it was a mystery of what everywhere else had. Better ships were now being produced and held the Early Age of Exploration.
During the late 19th and early 20th century, US expansionism used the same basic principle but was different from earlier expansionism in the way of geography, economics, and politics. They continued to believe that they had a God-given right to branch out. However, they expanded this Manifest Destiny so that, instead of looking just to expand and conquer the West, they were looking to conquer the entire world. Earlier, the United States had gained more land in the same vicinity and wanted to expand from the Atlantic to the Pacific. After completing this task, rather than settling down, they continued to try and gain more land, this time into different places including Hawaii, Cuba, and the Philippines.
They wanted to extend their political, military and economic control all over the world. With the booming economy in the United States in the late 1800s, there was a problem with the surplus of goods. Excess production led to declining profits. Americans needed more consumers to buy their products. Industrialists wanted trade to expand into new overseas market where American products could be sold.
Another motive for oceanic voyages in the 15th century was people and explorers were hungry and curious for new information and longed for ways to build up their knowledge. Along with gaining new knowledge, explorers saw it as a way of becoming famous and wealthy, if they were the ones who discovered knew and helpful knowledge first. The explorers would reap the credit and all the glory. Another aspect of gaining new knowledge and land, was the spread and influence of ones own religion. The explorers could discover new lands and impose their own religion and will upon others in that land or territory, so the spread of religion and getting ones own beliefs out there to new people and lands was huge motive.
Americans also thought that they could take up land as they pleased. Not only was power and control in the mix, but the need for more land for industrial purposes as well. However, Americans haven’t always had the exact same expansionism purposes over the years, in fact; they have changed quite a bit as time has progressed. American Expansionism between the late nineteenth-century and early twentieth- century shared many similarities with previous expansionist ideas and many differences as well. A major difference in the two expansion eras was that Americans felt the need to start expanding overseas and across the ocean.
Because of all this increased trade in the Indian Ocean, countries that lie on it began to move away from an agricultural mindset to one with ideas about specialized production. These countries knew that trade was booming in the Indian ocean so they began creating products that could be traded with other countries that were in high demand so they could make a lot of money. Also later on European countries tried to exclude the Muslim middle men, that made the most of goods from the Indian Ocean region, from the equation by sailing around Africa to the Indian Ocean. This led to many new
Once merchants realized this, they started charging more. This then made England want to find their own way to get the tea and other goods for cheaper. Christopher Columbus sailed in 1492 in search for a faster way to India for these goods. This resulted in the discovery of North America. In the 1700s, the clipper ship was invented.
The requirement was to buy fewer foreign products but sell more of their own goods in order to achieve the purpose of maximizing the accumulation of precious metals. However, with the development of commercial economic, the worldwide economic exchanges and the merchandise trade are growing prosperity, but the trade expansion of the competition is increasing. Thus the mercantilists began to promote “Trade Surplus Differential theory” they thought they only need to ensure the sufficient trade surplus in order to increase in national currency. This is the late mercantilism. The center of the late mercantilist is Britain.
SPANISH VS. BRITISH COLONIZATION Dymond Nobles HIST 1301 July 22, 2015 Exploration of the New World was the product of European empires expanding in an attempt to secure new trade routes, to find new sources of goods, and to spread the dominant religions of the respective empires. The major difference between the British and Spanish enterprises is how they were organized. Spanish exploration of the New World was led by Christopher Columbus and Juan Ponce de Leon. The motivations for colonial expansion were trade and the spread of the Christian faith through indigenous conversions. Under the exploration of Christopher Columbus, the Spanish Empire explored great parts of what would become South, Central, and North America while the French and British Empires focused predominantly on North America.
In the early 1600’s the colonization of the new world had started between the English and Spanish. Although they both came with very different things in mind they were both discovering America and looking for establishment. The English were focused on economic refuge, freedom of religion, and economic opportunity. The Spanish came to the New World for vastly different reasons. The Spanish came in search of silver, gold, and were driven by avidity.