| The most important short-term motivation for European exploration in the New World was gold. Governments saw it as a continent full of undiscovered gold and silver that could add to their country's wealth. With this in mind Europeans began exploring the Americas, mining for precious metals. The Aztec and Incan civilations were conquered, and their people were used as slaves in the mines, to mine for gold, silver, and diamonds for the Spanish crown. Although spreading God's word was a major motivator, it was hardly ever the main reason for exploration. Country's monarchs were more willing to give out gold for voyages if there was a chance that the expedition would generate more gold. Sam Stewart |
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Prompt #1
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8 comments:
For the Most part i agree with sam. Gold was an extreemly curcial part of exploration being a key export around the globe. But I beleve that glory was another part of the exploration as well. It was a space Race between all then major powers of europe, as to who could clame the most new found land and expand their empires. because of course, the biggest country wins.
Laxgoalie21 =pat richards
Pat-I don't know if the biggest country always wins...it is always when a country gets too big that it starts to fall. When a government overextends itself, especially long before the communication age, it gets harder to govern new, distant territories
I am sorry Sam but i need to agree with Pat. Nations did not know that there was gold in the new world. They had no idea what was over there. So I would say that the initial explorers were motivated more by glory and honoring their country more than anything else.
Sam, has a point. The biggest nation does not always win. Take (old) Rome for example, they overspread their empire and thats why many historians believe the Roman Empire fell. Although it must have been very rewarding and glorious to conquer and discover a new land, Kings and Queens were smart enough to send out their best boats and explorers such as Columbus or Cortes or Pizzaro, just to get glory. They wanted gold.
It all depends on the way u look at it. im not taking sides i agree that there where Contries interested in both. Why did columbus go? to find india, Why? so thay spain could be rich. That was the begining intention, but one must agree that after most of the northern/southern american contenant was discoverd it was a power seacrh.
I agree with Sam, guys. Yes, the origional motivation was to find a route to the East Indies and they didn't know there was all of the gold and silver in the Americas, but once they did knwo it was there, it became a HUGE factor.
I wasn't disagreeing with Pat about glory, the part of his comment I was really responding to was when he said that the biggest country wins. Regarding the gold/glory thing though, I think that economic growth (gold) and glory really went hand in hand. These explorers knew that if they discovered a quicker trade route to India they would attain a huge amount of glory but also a huge amount of money for themselves and their country.
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