The Meaning of Discovery in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries - Essay Example

The New World conquest yielded new lands, riches and slave labor which set-off an imperialistic hunger that spread to Africa. It was closer, larger and the natives from that continent were preferred as slaves over the natives of the Americas. The Europeans quickly claimed jurisdiction over most regions of Africa and Turkey as well. The British conquered India and did modernize its economy but it was to their own benefit. Although this trend was interrupted by the shake-ups of the 1700s and 1800s industrial, social and political revolutions, European nations readopted the strategy moving into the 20th century, introducing enough civil unrest to trigger the world’s first World War.

By the early 19th century, the New World wealth had been well plundered and it was widely feared that the slaves emanating from there could spread new diseases in Europe or contract European diseases and die themselves. Africa was an attractive target to quench the Europeans’ new thirst to create far-away empires and control territories that held the raw materials needed to maintain and grow their prosperous economies which were built upon imperialistic tactics. New territories also meant the opportunity to trade with new markets.

By the mid 19th century, the conquest for Africa was well underway. Gaining and controlling new territories outside the original country was justified by many explanations. A certain amount of national pride fueled the desire for an expansionist agenda. Obtaining new colonies was widely viewed as a gauge of a nation’s global prominence. Another justification was based on the prevalent racist attitude. “Europeans thought that they were better than Africans” (McDougal-Littell, 1999).

Church officials and missionaries encouraged imperialism because the natives of conquered territories could be more easily coerced to convert to Christianity. The British East India Company owned vast tracts of land and was the