In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the European States starts exploring the new Europe through seaways. The states of Spain and Portugal were leading bodies in this initiative. Moreover, England and the Netherlands were also involved. This exploration was made for the sake of wealth and power. Christopher Columbus was not the 1st individual to suggest that an individual could reach out to the continent of Asia by navigating west from Europe. Researchers claim that the impression is nearly as ancient as the notion that the planet Earth is round. (Specifically, it dates back to initial Rome.) This paper will discuss the struggles of Christopher Columbus while journeying around the world and the challenges that Columbus faced in his journey around the world. I agree with the much of what was new came about through struggle rather than cooperation.
These explorations enhance European information about the broadness of the world, mainly relative to sub-Saharan Africa and the Americas. These explorations were both in terms of politics and religion because Europeans wanted to increase their hold and impact all over the world. The desire for trade and to rule this world is the pulling factor of these discoveries. Most of the discovery took place through the sea routes because both Portugal and Spain had excellent naval skills. In deserts, they use the astrolabe, an instrument used to find out the location of your destination. Explorers from Portugal, Spain, England, Netherlands, and France participated in the exploration of Europe. This new exploration pushes Europe into a new territory, culture,e, and geography. This also includes physical, environmental, and other encounters(Lauter et al.).
The word discovery is notorious as it suggests indifference on the part of native people. This uneven opinion contradicts the independent survival of native inhabitants before the entrance of Europeans. Since the 1990s, writers of history have progressively substituted the term “discovery” with “encounter,” which is supposed as more suggestive.
By the conclusion of the fifteenth century, it was almost unbearable to move to Asia from Europe by land. The course was very long and difficult and meets with the aggressive militaries were hard to evade. Portuguese travelers resolved this difficulty by moving to the sea: They navigated to the south alongside the West African shore and around the Cape of Good Hope.
Nonetheless, Columbus had a dissimilar notion: Why not navigate to the west crossways to the Atlantic in its place of about the huge African landmass? The energetic navigator’s judgment was thorough, but his mathematics has some faults in it. He contended (wrongly) that the perimeter of the planet Earth was considerably lesser than his generations supposed it was; therefore, he thought that the trip by ship or boat from the continent of Europe to the continent of Asia must be not only conceivable but reasonably easy(Shell and Sollors).
Portugal was the strongest explorer at the beginning of the fifteenth century. Portugal first entered North Africa, where with the help of Prince Henry, she took entrance on the shore of Africa.
After that, Portugal, with the financial assistance of France, landed in the Caribbean. Then Portugal announced the ownership of Brazil. Vasco da Gama was another Portuguese explorer who reached the India. England made an East Indian company in India. Spanish explorers landed in the Mexico. A famous explorer from France conquers the Inca emperor. This is a brief timeline of exploration made by American, Portuguese, Spanish, and Dutch explorers.
An anthology of English literature published in 1946 by Norton and Companies writes that the discovery and exploration of Europe were the results of the struggle rather than the cooperation. It was an encounter in which both the natives and the explorers faced a struggle to settle down. As both of them had different ideologies, natures, cultures, thoughts, and beliefs, both of them were a challenge for each other. I second this opinion. According to my point of view, this is a struggle-based story. Both of them struggled a lot to cope with the result of that exploration. Both of them faced problems; both of them wanted to dominate, and both of them wanted to preserve their culture. The biggest problem and the struggle was the understanding of culture. Most of the explorers forced the natives to do things according to them. Besides these struggles to fit into the environment, Europe learned a lot from the states that explored. They gain a lot of information about art, architecture, science, and culture. This also affects the economy of Europe. In the following part of my paper, I am going to support my statement with facts and figures and portray the whole sketch of all the learnings and lose by both of them. Firstly, I will discuss the difficulties faced by the explorer and native(Lauter).
On August 3, 1492, Columbus and his crew members set to sail out from Spain in three boats: the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria. On October 12, the ships arrived not only in the continent of Asia, as Columbus had presumed, but nonetheless on one of the islands of Baham.
For several months, Columbus navigated from one island to another island in what we currently recognize as the Caribbean, considering the “pearls, precious stones, gold, silver, spices, and other objects and merchandise whatsoever” that he had undertaken to his Spanish customers, but he didn’t find out considerably. In March 1493, leaving 40 men behindhand in a rough-and-ready payment on Hispaniola (present-day Haiti and the Dominican Republic), he returned to Spain.
The first and the biggest problem faced by both of them are the cultural difference. The entrance of explorers to Africa, India, and America showed them that all of them had a different culture and different religions. Both America and Europe had the same faith, so they were very familiar with each other. Besides all this, they face some problems in terms of language. They come to Africa, where the explorer meets the Muslims who have changed in culture, language, and habits. This caused problems for both Africans an for the explorers. Firstly lack of communication, and secondly, misinterpretation. Both of these issues led to several massacres and resistance among them. Then it comes to India, where again, people had their own culture, their own rules, and their norms. Then again, both of them face problems in understanding each other, which case a sense of hate among the people.
The second advantage to the explorer was opening up new routes to the East.
This is the religious factor; within the exploration of Europeans to all over the world, Christianity is considered as the universal religion. Whenever they used to explore a new state, they started teaching their religion over there to overcome the differences between the people and to conquer the area quickly.
In September 1493, Columbus returned to the American people. He originates the Hispaniola reimbursement demolished (up till now, nobody recognizes what has happened over there) and leaves his brothers Bartolommeo and Diego behind to reestablish, alongside the share of his boats’ crew and hundreds of imprisoned citizens.
Then, he moved to the west, with his accompaniment of the native slaves, to endure his frequently futile exploration for the gold and additional products. Instead of the substantial resources he had assured the Spanish monarchs, he sent around 500 slaves to Queen Isabella. The queen was depressed. She assumed that some persons Columbus had discovered were Spanish matters who could not be imprisoned, and she promptly and severely resumed back the traveler’s gift.
In May 1498, Columbus navigated to the west crossways to the Atlantic Ocean for the 3rd time. He has visited Trinidad and in the South American continental earlier to the recurring doomed Hispaniola settlement, where the settlers had presented a bloodstained rebellion alongside the Columbus associates’ misconduct and cruelty. Circumstances were very undesirable that the Spanish experts had to direct a new director to take over. Christopher Columbus was detained and sent back to Spain with chains in his hand.
The fourth one is the Economic factor. This exploration increases the trade rest of Europe with the other States. Because now they have easy land and sea routes. Europe trades a lot of silk and Cotton with India and China. New technologies in wayfinding and navigation helped the Europeans to trade quickly. It provides them with easy land and sea routes. All of this trade increase the income of Europe, which in return increased the economic condition of Europe.
All of this paper concludes that no doubt that the discovery and exploration of Europe were the results of struggle rather than cooperation. This means that This discovery was not just discovery. It was an encounter in which both the natives and the explorers faced a struggle to settle down. As both of them had different ideologies, natures, cultures, thoughts, and beliefs, both of them the challenging for each other. But at the same time, Europe learned a lot from the states which the explored. They gain a lot of information about art, architecture, science, and culture. This also affects the economy of Europe. New technologies in wayfinding and navigation helped the Europeans to trade easily. It provides them with easy land and sea routes. All of this trade increased the income of Europe, which in return increased the economic condition of Europe. So Exploring something is all about the struggle because of one has to face many problems, and you would always be ready to face any situation.
Christopher Columbus didn’t “discover” America, and neither was he the 1st European person to visit the “New World.” (A Viking traveler has navigated to the Greenland and New-found land in the 11th era.)
Franklin revealed the Gulf Stream afterward. His return journey crossways the Atlantic Ocean from the city of London in the year 1775. He began to venture around why the westbound journey mostly takes longer time, and his capacities of the temperature of the ocean led to his finding of the presence of the Gulf-Stream. This information has obliged to reduce it to two weeks off the earlier marine time from North America to Europe(Lauter).
Mary White was taken to the United States by her paternities when she was a small child. They had lived in Salem in the Massachusetts Bay Colony (Which is currently the United States state of Massachusetts) till the year 1653, when they were taken to the frontier village of Lancaster. In the year 1656, she wedded Joseph Rowlandson; he intended a Puritan minister in the year 1660, and he turned into Lancaster’s 1st regular minister. The actions of the next two decades of her life are ambiguous(Lauter).
Traveller Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca was born in the year 1490 in Extremadura, Castile, in Spain. He was the treasurer of the Spanish voyage in Pánfilo de Narváez that reached what is currently called Tampa Bay, Florida, in the year 1528. In September, all, however, his party of 60 had perished; it had moved to the coast close to current Galveston, in the state of Texas. The survivors survived amongst the populace of the area for four years, and Cabeza de Vaca carved-out their parts as a dealer and as the healer in public(Lauter).
His trip has kicked off hundreds of years of survey and utilization of the American landmasses. The significance of his searches was very severe for the local inhabitants of the parts he and the conquistadores subjugated. Illness and ecological variations caused the obliteration of the mainstream of the innate populace with the passage of time, though the Europeans continued to excerpt the natural-capitals from these regions.
Nowadays, Columbus has a contentious bequest; he is recalled as a bold and path-breaking traveler who transmuted the New World; however, his activities also unchecked variations that will finally overwhelm the local inhabitants he and his associate travelers faced.
In the year 1502, clear of the majority of the severe charges but uncovered of his honorable labels, the old Columbus convinced the Spanish ruler to wage for one past journey crossways to the Atlantic Ocean. This time, Columbus made it the entire mode to Panama, only some miles from the Pacific Ocean, where he had to unrestraint 2 of his four boats in the aspect of an outbreak from aggressive nations. Unsuccessful, the aging traveler returned to Spain, where he expired in the year 1506.
Works Cited
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Lauter, Paul. “The Heath Anthology of American Literature.” American Literature, no. 26, 2003.
—. The Heath Anthology of American Literature, Volume C: Late Nineteenth Century: 1865-1910. Vol. 3, Cengage Learning, 2009.
Shell, Marc, and Werner Sollors. The Multilingual Anthology of American Literature: A Reader of Original Texts with English Translations. NYU Press, 2000.
