The Global Exploration by the European - Assignment Example

 Question One The global exploration by the Europeans, also refered to as the “Age of Discovery”, was started in the 15th century through Portuguese and Spanish (and later English, Dutch and French) naval expeditions that mostly resulted in colonial empires. Early explorations led to discoveries by the Portuguese in Africa and the Atlantic archipelagos as well as America by Spain. Europeans, who had earlier believed the world to be flat, were convinced otherwise by the explorers, igniting an enthusiastic need for further explorations. Hence, discovering and acquiring new land for the Europeans became a motivation for enriching themselves. To this end, factors that motivated Europeans to explore globally were primarily wealth, religious freedom or supremacy, and fame or glory (Newitt 2005, 1402). Explorers who found gold would bring trade and material gain to themselves and their countries. The wealth resulting from this was equated to power, which became a great motivation to explore. Others decided to move to new regions where they could earn a living in friendlier environments. For example, groups of European settlers migrated from the Holland plantations to America where they intended to start farming and better lifestyles. Religion was another factor, whereby the smaller ones in Europe were looked down upon. When members of the smaller religious groups got news of newfound territories, they began moving out to explore the possibility of spreading their religion, getting new followers and gaining supremacy over others. Finally, many explorers were motivated by fame and glory. Kings and queens paid them to discover, map and name new land, hoping to be remembered by it. In conclusion, the three factors that motivated Europeans to explore globally can be summarized as wealth, religion and fame (Newitt 2005, 1409). Question Two Absolutism is where the sovereignty of a state is embodied exclusively in the absolute king’s or ruler’s person and not any assembly or nobles. Constitutionalism, on the other hand, limits government by law, implying a balance between the government’s authority and the subjects’ rights. Whether written or not, the constitution governs the nation according to its provisions and protects the freedom of the subjects. The development of absolutism and constitutionalism can be compared and contrasted from the perspective of England and France (Aboukhadijeh 2013). The two political directions have their origins in the changes experienced in military tactics, weapons and organization that led to exponential increases in the financing of warfare in the 17th century. Conventional revenue sources could no longer meet the rising costs of war and monarchs, forcing them to seek new ones. While the English monarchy did not succeed in creating a financial base that was secure and independent of assemblies and noble estates, the French monarchy was successful, marking the start of absolutism. The landed nobility and politically active Englishmen rejected the monarchy’s intrusions and invoked traditional liberties, giving rise to constitutionalism. On the religious front, Puritanism, a religious movement by the Protestants, opposed England’s Stuart monarchy while in France, Protestant communities were crushed by Louis XIV. Louis XIV enhanced the crown’s reputation and authority, which the king retained exclusively. In contrast, after Charles I’s 1649 execution in England, Charles II consented to parliamentary rule. This led to the later creation of a Bill of Rights that limited the crown’s authority and subsequently guaranteed subjects fundamental rights and developed the concepts of popular sovereignty (Aboukhadijeh 2013). Question Three After the 19th century revolutions, many European governments realized that if they agreed to some liberal reforms and adapted the nationalists’ demands to their needs, their states would become stronger rather than weaker like they had earlier feared. Therefore, nationalism was an underlying factor in the unification of both Germany and Italy in the 19th century, although both had, in previous centuries under empires, been united (Wawro 2005, 169). The unification of both countries was achieved at the same time and, while Italy’s unification was through the pressure of Sardinia, Germany’s was achieved through Prussia. The Vienna Congress led to the formation of the German Confederation by 39 German states. Although they were divided politically, their cultural similarity was another unification factor. Notable leaders towards the unification included King Wilhem I and Otto von Bismarck. When Prussia joined forces with Austria between 1864 and 1866 against Denmark, they won the border provinces of Holstein and Schleswig. Italy, on the other hand, had Count Cavour who persuaded France’s Napoleon III to assist in the expansion of Piedmont-Sardinia to the northern parts of Italy in a bid to liberate itself from foreign control. When Giuseppe Garibaldi took over Cavour’s place, he defeated armies sent against him in the southern parts of Italy. By 1961, most of the Italian peninsula with the exception of Rome that was still controlled by the Pope, had declared allegiance to Piedmont-Sardinia’s King Victor Emmanuel. In conclusion, the prospects of the strength that can be realized from nationalism led to the unification of Germany and Italy in the 19th century (Wawro 2005, 198). Question Four WWII might have begun in 1939 but its influences in Europe and Asia date back to the 1920s. It started with the Italian fascism, then the 1930s Japanese militarism and eventual offensives on China and, most significantly, Hitler’s takeover of Germany together with his Nazis in 1933. These factors were compounded by the highly aggressive and militaristic national ideologies of both Europe and Asia, especially Germany, Italy and Japan (Paxton 2011, 124). In Europe, factors that led to WWII included expansionism, assumption of power by the Nazis, the Treaty of Versailles and racism. Under Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini respectively, Germany and Italy sought to expand their territorial bases and economic influence through military aggression and attacked their neighbors. Further, the Germans found it unfair for the Treaty of Versailles to blame WWI on them, and payment of reparations was running the country into inflation. Then, Italy also reacted to international socialist and communists uprisings through fascism. These factors led to street violence that shifted moderate opinion, causing it to support Germany’s need to find a strong man against communism. In Asia, the Japanese Empire had always harbored expansionist ideas towards China and Manchuria due to competition for markets and resources. Just before the war begun, the empire invaded China in an attempt to cut out an empire and also replace Western dominance with Japanese influence. This compelled the US to institute embargoes and sanctions on steel and oil against Japan, which were critical resource to Japan as a naval power, and they decided to attack American and convoys in the Far East. This was in a bid to capture the regions that produced rubber and oil. With the US offering military and economic aid to China, it ignited diplomatic friction with Japan, drawing in both Thailand and France, further fueling war. It can therefore be concluded that expansionist ideologies and competing for trade resources contributed towards WWII in Europe and Asia (Paxton 2011, 153). Works Cited Aboukhadijeh, Feross. 2013. Absolutism and constitutionalism in Western Europe. http://www.apstudynotes.org/european-history/outlines/chapter-16-absolutism-and/ (accessed September 2014). Newitt, Malyn. 2005. A history of Portuguese overseas expansion. New York: Routledge. Paxton, Robert. 2011. Europe in the twentieth century. United States: Wadsworth. Wawro, Geoffrey. 2005. The Franco-Prussian war: The German conquest of France. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Read More