Age of Exploration Essay

 The age of Exploration between the period of 1500 to 1700 was a great disaster for the
 world as a whole.  The Europeans, for their own self-gain, destroyed civilizations, spread
 disease, crushed economies, and violated human rights and then used excuses to fortify
 their claims for their expeditions.  The Europeans spread disease to the Americas and wiped
 out nearly half of the American Indian population.  They also set up many slave trade
 routes off of the coast of Africa and placed much of the African population under slavery,
 and took the valuable natural resources from the land back to Europe.  The Europeans also
 were a main cause in the fall of the Ottoman Empire in the Middle East due to their large
 scale trading.  They tried to force their religion on the peoples of the eastern world
 mainly Asia and were a contributing factor in helping the eastern nations adopt a policy of
 isolationism with the rest of the world.  Taking into account all these negative effects
 from this period in time, they greatly outweigh the positive aspects of the European
 exploration for themselves and for the rest of the world. The Europeans began their
 exploration of the Americas with Christopher Columbus who under the funds of the Spanish
 discovered this region of the world.  The Europeans believed that they were helping the
 Native Indian population by living with them, teaching them newer methods of hunting and
 agriculture, yet all they were actually doing was introducing a "virus" into the tranquil
 and disease free habitat that the Indians had been living in for hundreds of years.  The
 disease which they brought with them spread so rapidly that by 1650 nearly ninety percent
 of the population had fallen dead.  The Europeans in return gained new land to grow
 agricultural products, as well as learned new methods for farming and industry from the
 Indians.  This was only the beginning of the destruction for the Americas.  Spanish
 Conquistadors had arrived in South and Central America for a period of time and destroyed
 the civilizations of the Aztecs and the Incas.  They slaughtered their people and destroyed
 their cities including their capital city of Tenochtitlan.  Francisco Pizarro had also
 destroyed the civilization of the Incas and gained the knowledge of their many technologies
 including the idea of building suspension bridges across land. The Europeans arrived in
 Africa with the exploration of Portuguese sailors who had set up trading posts all along
 the coast of Africa.  The Europeans after setting up these trading posts soon realized that
 with their superior technology and weapons could take the primitive people of Africa and
 enslave them to work, thus gaining a new weapon to add to their dominant economy.  This was
 one of the Europeans most disastrous actions during the age of exploration because the
 repercussions of this action would come back to haunt them for hundreds of years to come. 
 Slaves were not the only prize to be claimed by the Europeans in Africa.  Africa was very
 rich with minerals and agricultural products.  Diamonds, Coal, and Gold were in abundance
 in most African territories and were just waiting to be taken by the Europeans.  The
 Europeans therefore again had a negative effect on Africa, by enslaving it's people and
 taking the valuable natural resources of the magnificent continent. The Europeans were very
 active in the Middle East region for many years before the age of exploration, but during
 this time period the actions of the Europeans proved to be disastrous for the Ottoman
 Empire.  Since the fall of Constantinople in 1453, the Europeans had no sea trade route to
 the rich lands of Asia and therefore were feeling very bitter toward the Ottoman people. 
 The Ottoman Empire controlled the trade routes to the east and were willing to charge very
 high prices in order to allow the Europeans to pass through their borders to trade with the
 Asians.  The Europeans then had to fund trade routes around Africa in order to reach Asia,
 and the sailor named Vasco De Gama was the first to sail around the tip of Africa opening
 this new route.  Once the Europeans had discovered their own trade route to the east the
 Ottomans were no longer a factor in the trade of that part of the world so their power
 began to slowly decline.  The European exploration therefore was a contributing factor
 toward the fall of the Ottoman Empire soon after. The last area and one of the most
 important to European exploration was Asia.  The Europeans coveted Asia because of it's
 silks, spices, and other natural resources which it badly needed.  The Europeans explored
 places such as China, Thailand, The Philippines, as well as Indonesia.  They found many
 exotic things which they had never seen before, but their main purpose in this area of the
 world was to spread their religion as they attempted to do in the Americas.  The Europeans
 when they arrived in China tried to force Christianity on the people who lived there under
 Confucianism and other religions such as Buddhism.  This area of the world was the least
 affected by the exploration of the Europeans because they were not really conquered.  The
 Asian people were more advanced than most of the European nations at the time and because
 of  their strict eastern philosophies did not want to explore the rest of the world.  They
 did however lose much of their resources to the Europeans especially Indonesia which was
 called the spice islands by the Europeans at one point. The European exploration was a
 great disaster for the rest of the world during the period between 1500 and 1700.  The
 Europeans spread many disease to the Americas and killed most of the Native American
 population.  They also destroyed the civilization of the Aztecs as well as that of the
 Incas under the leadership of Hernando Cortes and Francisco Pizarro.  The beautiful cities
 which were constructed now lay in ruins and the people lay slaughtered by the hands of the
 Spanish Conquistadors.  The African people were devastated as well, being enslaved and
 traded like pieces of meat for the benefit of the European merchants.  Their natural
 resources also snatched away and used.  The Middle East also took a hit from the
 exploration of the Europeans, by losing much of their power due to the loss of trade in the
 area and eventually the whole downfall of their infrastructure after the fall of the
 Ottoman empire.  The Asians did not suffer as much as the rest of the world, yet they were
 also abused by the Europeans, having religion forced upon them as well as being used for
 natural resources.  All the rest of the world suffered due to the exploration of the
 Europeans.  The Europeans destroyed, killed, and plundered the rest of the world for it's
 own economic benefit and then excused their actions with the ideas of curiosity and
 knowledge. 
