European Colonization of the Americas - Research Paper Example

? European Colonization of the Americas European Colonization of the Americas The colonization of the Americas by European countries took place around 1492 after Christopher Columbus set sail and discovered rich resources like spices and thought about trade in America. South America was thus looked at first, along the Caribbean coasts and after that John Cabot the King of England landed in North America in order to exploit the available opportunities there. Soon after, a large number of population migrations were also seen as around 50 million people left Europe in order to go and live in the Americas and set up their jobs and businesses there. The period that follows after 1492 is primarily regarded as the period of Columbian Exchange due to the high migration rates. However, even though the conquests proved to be fruitful there are various ways by which the colonization has not really been beneficial to the European countries. This paper helps to discuss how Europe was both weakened and enriched by its colonization in America. The Spanish and the Portuguese were the first to set foot into the Americas and they soon major chunks and expressed control over South America. Soon even the Europeans began to face attacks from other colonists around the world as there grew a fierce competition with respect to capturing territories. Spanish Florida, New Mexico, New England, Acadia, Canada, New Sweden and New Netherland were all under European rule by the 18th century. One of the main merits of these conquests were that the European countries were able to import slaves, labourers and other such menial workers back to their lands or even rule under them in the Americas; this helped them a great deal in gaining access to not only the indigenous resources of the Americas but also to get the expertise in farming, cultivation and other such primary activities by the workers and slaves. Many Europeans were able to take slaves back with them to help them in their household chores and carry out their errands and jobs so as to provide time for leisure. (Morrisson, S) The native population of the Americas went down by at least 80% after Columbus set foot in there because of the heavy bouts of migration and immigration to and from the countries. A great lot of people died as well because of an outbreak of diseases in the old world and lack of medicines. Some say that many of these diseases even occurred because of communicability from Europe to the Americas as well as climate change and environment change for those that were transported from the Americas to Europe. European lifestyle on the whole was very dynamic as compared to the era that the people were living in at the time. People were in close contact with domestic animals like cows, goats, sheep, horses and pigs for the purpose of livelihood and food. This furthered the process of catching diseases due to the lack of medicinal opportunities available to them and thus new germs were introduced to the people, killing almost 10 to 20 million people within the span on the century. Most of these people were the American natives and this led to a great amount of both political as well as cultural instability in the country at the time which gave more leverage for the English to warp in on the opportunity and establish more settlements. For them, it merely meant more land and space to capitalize on. Economically speaking, European countries benefitted a great deal by the degree of goodwill that they gained by exploiting the opportunities with respect to resources available in the Americas; they were able to import spices, cloth, as well as other kinds of treasures like silver. Most of the slaves that were transported were Black Americans and due to the migration, there was a loss of identity and language among the Americans giving yet another upper hand to the Europeans so that they would be able to manage and establish another version of Europe altogether in America. The main reason for English settlement included an inspiration from Spanish conquests during the Inca and Aztec empires in the 16th century. Thus the permanent settlement of Europeans in Virginia was done on the basis of getting lucky with respect to economic riches yet again. The Virginia Company at the time was one of the most successfully running trading companies and that was financed by Englishmen interested in gaining wealth. Cash crops like tobacco began to be cultivated and grown and passages were being formed from the Indies to Europe in order to make travels easier. A large number of indentured servants began to be transported to and fro. At the same time however, American landlords who were already wealthy and not in a position to give the same up to Englishmen, also began to hire English workers in their farms; thus even though European conquests were at large the frame of the bigger picture, there were a number of European immigrants that were seeking work under the American rich as well. Many even moved to America in order to start life afresh with a livelihood that would help to sustain them better. Thus in this manner, Europe lost out on a great amount of labour to the Americas as well. (Behrendt, S) Even today, a large number of people living in the Americas are originally from Europe. Religious immigration was also abundant at the time as most of the English and Dutch colonies in the Americas tended to be extremely diverse along the lines mostly of being Roman Catholics. People belonging to various nationalities and faiths like Puritans, Presbyterians, Huguenots, Lutherans, Quakers, and Amish etc came to the Americas in order to start a new life. Many faiths were being condemned in Europe at the time and these people went to the Americas looking for a place to live in. In this manner, European civilization lost out on a great amount of diversity as many people began to question the motives of the church by the end of the 16th century, because the main aim of English and European countries was to ‘purify’ the people by making sure that most of them belonged to Christendom. In conclusion, European colonization in history has been regarded as one of the strongest colonial powers; the Europeans were able to set foot in almost all the territories around the world, gaining an excellent base with regard to trade and investment all over. They were able to use their knowhow and intelligence to build on and use resources and thus they managed to exploit opportunities and make themselves stable and rich with time. However, with their colonization in America, they faced problems as well as were termed to be successful in various ways. In short, by capitalizing on American resources, setting up industries, building passage ways from the Americas to Europe and furthermore, being able to import and export labour and human resources, they were able to enrich themselves. However, at the same time, this also proved to have certain amount of demerits as American migration proved to bring about communicable diseases in Europe, slaves and labourers were looked down upon with time with regard to international human rights and thus the Europeans were looked at as a harsh and brutish community of people. At the same time, they lost out on a great amount of their own population as well as religion, which tended to make the European countries unstable in terms of polity and social life. With lesser natives in the European countries, they had no choice but to depend on the Americans. In this manner, they were both weakened as well as enriched by their colonization in the Americas. References Behrendt, S. (1999). Transatlantic Slave Trade Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience. New York: Basic Civitas Books. Morrisson, S. (1971). The European Discovery of America: The northern voyages, A.D. 500-1600. Read More