Europe has witnessed dramatic encounters from 1492 to 1600. It is the same for America as well. The year 1492 is a year that is a year of high historical value (Kirby, 2014). The year is marked as the beginning of the European colonization of America. The paper aims to discuss the importance of the year 1492 and the way it impacted the people living in Europe, America and Africa.
The European first reached America in the year 1492 after the invasion was done by a European in the eleventh century. In 1492, a Spanish expedition who was headed by Christopher Columbus successfully reached America. It was after then, the exploration and colonization began expanding rapidly. Through the Caribbean region, including parts of North and South America eventually western hemisphere as well.
Although the colonization began with the approach of being a benefit to the other countries, the scene was different later on. The flow of benefit appeared one-sided only, where it was only Europe benefitting from the American (Zinn, 2015). The exploration and colonization of America has modified and transformed the entire world that in the end added 31 new nation-states to the global community. In one hand, the religious and cultural arrogance led the Europeans to deny everything valued by the Americans and destroy it. Also, on the other hand, many people, the settlers who were sitting on the powerful positions were social and political visionaries. They were able to see the possibilities of the future and found extraordinary opportunities in the scene. The aim of them was to achieve freedom, justice and equality. Due to the colonization to America, some of the most stable and stern democracies are found existing in the world that was the result of the transformative process. A severe loss of population loss and cultural loss of the native land. African were victimized to a great extent leading to the trend of slavery (Spohn, 2016).
The colonization and exploration of Europe had both advantages and disadvantages. The advantages would include better transportation and trade route. It has also improved cartography, economic prosperity. The new land provided several opportunities to know a geographical location (Sokolow, 2016). The trade route provided people to connect with each other and make economic development. However, the disadvantages of the colonization would involve, the introduction of diseases. There was the introduction of various diseases. The voyage was very highly dangerous and risky. Due to several reasons in the unsafe journey, several people died along the way. The process destroyed the civilization of the native people. It forced cultural and religious beliefs on the native people. The exploitation of the new land led to the beginning of the slave trend as well which have long term impacts, observed even today.
The
European brought ideas, plants, animals, technologies that were new to the
native people. People learned the new things however were forced to lose the
native values and forced to be exploited, mistreated by the Europeans.
References:
Kirby, D. (2014). Northern Europe in the early modern period: the Baltic world 1492-1772. Routledge.
Sokolow, J. A. (2016). The Great Encounter: Native Peoples and European Settlers in the Americas, 1492-1800: Native Peoples and European Settlers in the Americas, 1492-1800. Routledge.
Spohn, W. (2016). Entangled identities: nations and Europe. Routledge.
Zinn, H. (2015). A people’s history of the United States: 1492-present. Routledge.
