The Columbian exchange allowed peoples from the Old World to get to know tobacco and a host of other outlandish goods, plants, and animals. The development of America also allowed Europeans to get a new source of gold and silver. From Europe, America adopted cabbage, grapes, rice, sugarcane, wheat, coffee trees, olives, cows, pigs, sheep, and horses. Some new items, such as a turkey, have effortlessly taken root in Europe; others, like potatoes, took significantly longer to get into European cuisines. Meanwhile, despite the benefits of creating the world market, it provided some negative outcomes.
European World Powers’ Motivation to Explore the Americas
One of the reasons for Exploration was the search for trade routes from Europe to China and India. Spices and other goods were delivered from these countries in small quantities. The trade was complicated by the constant Turkish, Arab, Mongol conquests (Kendall, 2018). Another important cause was the lack of precious metals. Their extraction in Europe was limited, however, expensive oriental goods should have been paid in gold and silver. Besides, Exploration became possible through significant successes in shipbuilding and navigation (Kendall, 2018). Europeans have learned to build caravels being fast and able to sail along the waves against the wind (Kendall, 2018). Moreover, medieval society has already accepted the idea that the Earth has a spherical shape, and sailors were confident that they could find a way to the eastern countries.
Economic Effects of Exploration
There are several crucial socio-economic consequences of the Exploration. Firstly, the colonial system started forming, accelerating the emergence of capitalist production in Western Europe and contributed to the accumulation in the bourgeoisie of large sums of money necessary for the uprise of the privately-owned factory. The rise of Spain and Portugal as colonial powers was relatively short-lived (Kendall, 2018). The feudal lords obtained from the colonies of wealth which were unproductive in terms of economic growth, while in England and France, the development of industry and trade was encouraged. Countries were able to effectively use geographical discoveries to develop a market economy and create their colonial empires.
Secondly, due to the expeditions of seafarers from many countries, Europe, Africa, America, and Australia connected trade routes; consequently, the international market began to take shape. Its evolution was another powerful impetus to the appearance and development of the free enterprise economy in Western Europe (Kendall, 2018). In the selling race, there was the creation of new trading companies, which regulated the trade with a specific world area.
Effects of Exploration on Native Americans
The discovery of America has led to some large-scale demographic consequences. Significant populations of the white people and Africans arose in the New World that previously were absent. The indigenous population of America is largely mixed with European or Negroid, which provoked the formation of mixed cultures including Mestizos, Zambo, and Melungeon (Liebmann et al, 2016). On the other hand, there was practically no massive movement of Native American genes to the Old World (Liebmann et al, 2016). Emigration from Latin America to Spain and Portugal remains small in number.
Transmitting Old World Diseases
Europeans are considered responsible for transmitting Old World diseases. Subsequent events were called depopulation or demographic disaster of Native American. The main danger was fatal diseases, against which Native Americans did not have immunity. Soldiers and white settlers brought smallpox, typhoid, measles, flu, bubonic plague, malaria to the American continent. Native Americans were helpless in front of smallpox, which had a significant effect on them – the sick were covered with terrible ulcers, extinct to half the population of the provinces of Central Mexico (Liebmann et al, 2016). Mass epidemics might be considered the reason for Aztec and Inca empires’ fall.
Mariners of that time went on trips not so much out of curiosity as guided by practical goals. In the middle of the 15th century, the production of goods grew in European countries, and market relations developed rapidly. The Exploration activated the foundation of the international division of labor and the global economy. Meanwhile, concerning the negative side, the discovery of the New World stopped the independent development of its peoples and laid the foundation for their colonial dependence.
References
Kendall, J. (2018). Encyclopedia of the Atlantic World, 1400-1900: Europe, Africa, and the Americas in an Age of Exploration, Trade, and Empires. Reference Reviews.
Liebmann, M. J., Farella, J., Roos, C. I., Stack, A., Martini, S., & Swetnam, T. W. (2016). Native American depopulation, reforestation, and fire regimes in the Southwest United States, 1492–1900 CE. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 113(6), 696-704.