Causes and Impacts of the European Age of Exploration

Introduction

With today ’ s ball-shaped placement satellites, Internet maps, cell phones, and superfast travel, it is hard to imagine precisely how it might have felt to embark on a voyage across an strange ocean. What lay across the ocean ? In the early 1400s in Europe, few people knew. How long would it take to get there ? That depended on the wind instrument, the upwind, and the distance. Days would have run together, with no sounds but the voices of the captain and the crowd, the creak of the sails, the blowing wind instrument, and the splash of waves against the ship ’ s hull .
Would you be willing to undertake such a voyage ? only those most adventurous, most audacious, and most convinced in their abilities to sail in any weather, manage any gang, and meet any context dared do so. They sailed west from England, Spain, and Portugal to North America. They sailed south from Portugal and Spain to South America, to lands where the Incas lived. They traveled to Africa, past the kingdoms of Ghana, Mali, and Songhai. The crew of one portuguese excursion even sailed wholly around the world .
european explorers changed the world in many dramatic ways. Because of them, cultures divided by 3,000 miles or more of urine began interacting. european countries claimed large parts of the earth. As nations competed for territory, Europe had an enormous shock on people living in aloof lands.

The Americas, in turn, made authoritative contributions to Europe and the remainder of the universe. For exercise, from the Americas came crops such as corn and potatoes, which grew well in Europe. By increasing Europe ’ s food add, these crops helped create population growth .
Another great change during the early modern age was the Scientific Revolution. Between 1500 and 1700, scientists used observation and experiments to make dramatic discoveries. For exercise, Isaac Newton formulated the laws of graveness. The Scientific Revolution besides led to the invention of fresh tools, such as the microscope and the thermometer .
Advances in skill helped pave the manner for a period called the Enlightenment. The Enlightenment began in the late 1600s. enlightenment thinkers used observation and reason to try to solve problems in club. Their function led to newly ideas about government, human nature, and human rights .
The Age of Exploration, the Scientific Revolution, and the Enlightenment helped to shape the world we live in today .

The Causes of European Exploration

Overview
Why did european exploration begin to flourish in the 1400s ? Two main reasons stand out. First, Europeans of this fourth dimension had several motives for exploring the worldly concern. second, advances in cognition and technology helped to make the Age of Exploration possible .
Motives for Exploration
Asian spices / Creative Commons For early explorers, one of the chief motives for exploration was the desire to find new trade routes to Asia. By the 1400s, merchants and Crusaders had brought many goods to Europe from Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. need for these goods increased the desire for trade .
Europeans were particularly concern in spices from Asia. They had learned to use spices to help preserve food during winter and to cover up the taste of food that was no longer fresh .
Trade with the East, however, was difficult and identical expensive. Muslims and Italians controlled the run of goods. Muslim traders carried goods to the east coast of the Mediterranean Sea. italian merchants then brought the goods into Europe. Problems arose when Muslim rulers sometimes closed the trade routes from Asia to Europe. besides, the goods went through many hands, and each deal party raised the price .
european sovereign and merchants wanted to break the hold that Muslims and Italians had on deal. One direction to do so was to find a sea path to Asia. portuguese sailors looked for a route that went around Africa. Christopher Columbus tried to reach Asia by sailing west across the Atlantic .
other motives besides came into play. many people were excited by the opportunity for new cognition. Explorers saw the chance to earn fame and glory, american samoa well as wealth. As modern lands were discovered, nations wanted to claim the lands ’ riches for themselves .
A final examination motive for exploration was the desire to spread Christianity beyond Europe. Both Protestant and Catholic nations were tidal bore to make new converts. Missionaries of both faiths followed the paths blazed by explorers .
Advances in Knowledge and Technology
The Fra Mauro map, a medieval European map, was made around 1450 by the Italian monk Fra Mauro. It is a circular world map drawn on parchment and set in a wooden frame, about two meters in diameter. / Wikimedia Commons The Age of Exploration began during the Renaissance. The Renaissance was a time of new memorize. A act of advances during that time made it easier for explorers to speculation into the unknown .
One cardinal progress was in mapmaking, the art and science of mapmaking. In the early on 1400s, an italian learner translated an ancient book called Guide to Geography from Greek into Latin. The book was written by the thinker Ptolemy ( TOL-eh-mee ) in the second hundred C.E. Printed copies of the record inspired new interest in mapmaking. european mapmakers used Ptolemy ’ sulfur knead as a basis for drawing more accurate maps .
Discoveries by explorers gave mapmakers new information with which to work. The solution was a dramatic change in Europeans ’ view of the world. By the 1500s, Europeans made globes, showing Earth as a sphere. In 1507, a german cartographer made the first map that intelligibly showed North and South America as break from Asia .
In turn, better maps made navigation easier. The most important Renaissance geographer, Gerardus Mercator ( mer-KAY-tur ), created maps using improved lines of longitude and latitude. Mercator ’ s mapmaking technique was a great help to navigators .
An better ship design besides helped explorers. By the 1400s, Portuguese and spanish shipbuilders were making a new type of ship called a caravel. These ships were small, fast, and easy to maneuver. Their special bottoms made it easier for explorers to travel along coastlines where the water was not deep. Caravels besides used lateen sails, a triangular style adapted from Muslim ships. These sails could be positioned to take advantage of the scent no count which way it blew .
Along with better ships, new navigational tools helped sailors travel more safely on the open seas. By the end of the 1400s, the compass was a lot improved. Sailors used compasses to find their hold, or direction of travel. The astrolabe helped sailors determine their distance union or south from the equator .
last, better weapons gave Europeans a huge advantage over the people they met in their explorations. Sailors could fire their cannons at targets near the shore without leaving their ships. On country, the weapons of native peoples often were no equal for european guns, armor, and horses .

Portugal Begins the Age of Exploration

The Age of Exploration began in Portugal. This small country is located on the iberian Peninsula. Its rulers sent explorers first to nearby Africa and then around the earth .
Key Portuguese Explorers
Prince Henry the Navigator / National Museum of Ancient Art, Wikimedia Commons The major figure in early portuguese exploration was Prince Henry, the son of King John I of Portugal. Nicknamed “ the Navigator, ” Prince Henry was not an internet explorer himself. alternatively, he encouraged exploration and planned and directed many authoritative expeditions .
Beginning in about 1418, Henry sent explorers to sea about every year. He besides started a school of navigation where sailors and mapmakers could learn their trades. His cartographers made newly maps based on the data ship captains brought back .
Henry ’ s early on expeditions focused on the west coast of Africa. He wanted to continue the Crusades against the Muslims, find gold, and take part in asian trade .
gradually, portuguese explorers made their way farther and farther confederacy. In 1488, Bartolomeu Dias became the inaugural european to sail around the southerly tip of Africa .
In July 1497, Vasco district attorney Gama set sail with four ships to chart a ocean path to India. Da Gama ’ s ships rounded Africa ’ s southern lean and then sailed up the east seashore of the continent. With the help of a boater who knew the route to India from there, they were able to across the indian Ocean .
Da Gama arrived in the larboard of Calicut, India, in May 1498. There he obtained a burden of cinnamon and pepper. On the reelect trip to Portugal, district attorney Gama lost one-half of his ships. still, the valuable cargo he brought back yield for the voyage many times over. His trip made the portuguese even more tidal bore to trade directly with amerind merchants .
In 1500, Pedro Cabral ( kah-BRAHL ) bent sweep for India with a fleet of 13 ships. Cabral first gear sailed southwest to avoid areas where there are no winds to fill sails. But he sailed so far west that he reached the east coast of contemporary Brazil. After claiming this land for Portugal, he sailed back to the east and rounded Africa. Arriving in Calicut, he established a trade stake and signed craft treaties. He returned to Portugal in June 1501 .
The Impact of Portuguese Exploration
A 32- to 33-year old Pedro Álvares Cabral in an early 20th-century painting. / Wikimedia Commons Portugal ’ mho explorers changed Europeans ’ sympathy of the world in several ways. They explored the coasts of Africa and brought back gold and enslaved Africans. They besides found a sea route to India. From India, explorers brought back spices, such as cinnamon and pepper, and other goods, such as porcelain, cense, jewels, and silk .
After Cabral ’ second voyage, the Portuguese took control of the eastern ocean routes to Asia. They seized the seaport of Goa ( GOH-uh ) in India and built forts there. They attacked towns on the east slide of Africa. They besides set their sights on the Moluccas, or Spice Islands, in what is now Indonesia. In 1511, they attacked the main port of the islands and killed the Muslim defenders. The captain of this dispatch explained what was at interest. If Portugal could take the spice trade away from Muslim traders, he wrote, then Cairo and Makkah “ will be ruined. ” As for italian merchants, “ Venice will receive no spices unless her merchants go to buy them in Portugal. ”
Portugal ’ s manipulate of the indian Ocean broke the hold Muslims and Italians had on asian craft. With the increased competition, prices of asian goods—such as spices and fabrics—dropped, and more people in Europe could afford to buy them .
During the 1500s, Portugal besides began to establish colonies in Brazil. The native people of Brazil suffered greatly as a result. The Portuguese forced them to work on sugar plantations, or large farms. They besides tried to get them to give up their religion and convert to Christianity. Missionaries sometimes tried to protect them from misuse, but countless numbers of native peoples died from overwork and from european diseases. Others fled into the department of the interior of Brazil .
The colonization of Brazil besides had a negative impingement on Africa. As the native population of Brazil decreased, the Portuguese needed more laborers. Starting in the mid–1500s, they turned to Africa. Over the next 300 years, ships brought millions of enslave West Africans to Brazil .

Later Spanish Exploration and Conquest

Overview
After Columbus ’ mho voyages, Spain was tidal bore to claim flush more lands in the New World. To explore and conquer “ New Spain, ” the spanish turned to adventurers called conquistadors, or conquerors. The conquistadors were allowed to establish settlements and seize the wealth of natives. In revert, the spanish government claimed some of the treasures they found .
Key Explorers
18th century portrait of Hernán Cortés / Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, Wikimedia Commons In 1519, spanish explorer Hernán Cortés ( er–NAHN koor–TEZ ), with and a band of boyfriend conquistadors, set out to explore contemporary Mexico. native people in Mexico told Cortés about the Aztecs. The Aztecs had built a boastfully and affluent empire in Mexico .
With the serve of a native womanhood named Malinche ( mah–LIN–chay ), Cortés and his men reached the Aztec capital, Tenochtitlán ( tay–nawh–tee–TLAHN ). The Aztec ruler, Moctezuma II, welcomed the spanish with great honors. Determined to break the might of the Aztecs, Cortés took Moctezuma hostage .
Cortés now controlled the Aztec capital. In 1520, he left the city of Tenochtitlán to battle a rival spanish storm. While he was away, a group of conquistadors attacked the Aztecs in the center of a religious celebration. In reaction, the Aztecs rose up against the spanish. The soldiers had to fight their means out of the city. Many of them were killed during the get off .
The follow year, Cortés mounted a siege of the city, aided by thousands of native allies who resented Aztec rule. The Aztecs ran out of food and water, yet they fought desperately. After several months, the spanish captured the aztec leader, and Aztec resistance collapsed. The city was in ruins. The mighty Aztec Empire was no more .
Four factors contributed to the get the better of of the Aztec Empire. First, Aztec legend had predicted the arrival of a white-skinned god. When Cortés appeared, the Aztecs welcomed him because they thought he might be this god, Quetzalcoatl. Second, Cortés was able to make allies of the Aztecs ’ enemies. Third, their horses, armor, and superscript weapons gave the spanish an advantage in battle. Fourth, the spanish carried diseases that caused deadly epidemics among the Aztecs .
aztec riches inspired spanish conquistadors to continue their search for amber. In the 1520s, Francisco Pizarro received permission from Spain to conquer the Inca Empire in South America. The Incas ruled an empire that extended throughout most of the Andes Mountains. By the time Pizarro arrived, however, a civil war had weakened that empire .
In April 1532, the Incan emperor, Atahualpa ( ah–tuh–WAHL–puh ), greeted the spanish as guests. Following Cortés ’ mho exercise, Pizarro launched a surprise attack and kidnapped the emperor. Although the Incas paid a roomful of gold and flatware in ransom, the spanish killed Atahualpa. Without their drawing card, the Inca Empire promptly fell aside .
The Impact of Later Spanish Exploration and Conquest
La Noche Triste – The Sad Night, the fall of Aztec Tenochtitlan / Wikimedia Commons The explorations and conquests of the conquistadors transformed Spain. The spanish quickly expanded foreign deal and overseas colonization. For a time, wealth from the Americas made Spain one of the universe ’ mho rich and most powerful countries .
Besides aureate and silver medal, ships from the Americas brought corn and potatoes to Spain. These crops grew well in Europe. The increased food supply helped spur a population boom. Conquistadors besides introduced Europeans to new luxury items, such as chocolate .
In the long run, however, gold and silver from the Americas suffering Spain ’ second economy. inflation, or an addition in the issue of money, led to a loss of its measure. It now cost people a big deal more to buy goods with the devalue money. additionally, monarchs and the affluent spent their riches on luxuries, alternatively of building Spain ’ s industries .
The spanish conquests had a major affect on the New World. The spanish introduced newly animals to the Americas, such as horses, cattle, sheep, and pigs. But they destroyed two advanced civilizations. The Aztecs and Incas lost much of their culture along with their wealth. many became laborers for the spanish. Millions died from disease. In Mexico, for example, there were about twenty-five million native people in 1519. By 1605, this number had dwindled to one million.

Other European Explorations

Overview
Spain and Portugal dominated the early years of exploration. But rulers in rival nations wanted their own parcel of trade and new lands in the Americas. Soon England, France, and the Netherlands all sent expeditions to North America .
Key Explorers
Giovanni da Verrazano / Wikimedia Commons Explorers frequently sailed for any area that would pay for their voyages. The italian bluejacket John Cabot made England ’ s first base voyage of discovery. Cabot believed he could reach the Indies by sailing northwest across the Atlantic. In 1497, he landed in what is now Canada. Believing he had reached the northeasterly slide of Asia, he claimed the region for England .
Another italian, Giovanni da Verrazano, sailed under the french flag. In 1524, Verrazano explored the Atlantic coast from contemporary North Carolina to Canada. His voyage gave France its first claims in the Americas. unfortunately, on a late stumble to the West Indies, he was killed by native people .
Sailing on behalf of the Netherlands, English internet explorer Henry Hudson journeyed to North America in 1609. Hudson wanted to find a northwest passage through North America to the Pacific Ocean. Such a water route would allow ships to sail from Europe to Asia without entering waters controlled by Spain .
Hudson did not find a northwest enactment, but he did explore what is now called the Hudson River in contemporary New York State. His explorations were the basis of the dutch claim to the sphere. dutch settlers established the colony of New Amsterdam on Manhattan in 1625 .
In 1610, Hudson tried again, this meter under the flag of his native England. Searching farther north, he sailed into a boastfully bay in Canada that is now called Hudson Bay. He spent three months looking for an wall socket to the Pacific, but there was none .
After a hard winter in the icy bay, some of Hudson ’ mho crew rebelled. They set him, his son, and seven firm followers adrift in a little gravy boat. Hudson and the early castaways were never seen again. Hudson ’ s voyage, however, laid the basis for later english claims in Canada .
The Impact of European Exploration of North America
Defeat of the Spanish Armada, 8 August 1588, Philip James de Loutherbourg / National Maritime Museum, Greenwich Hospital Collection, Wikimedia Commons Unlike the conquistadors in the south, northerly explorers did not find gold and other treasure. As a resultant role, there was less sake, at first gear, in starting colonies in that region .
Canada ’ south shores did offer rich resources of cod and early fish. Within a few years of Cabot ’ south slip, fishing boats regularly visited the region. Europeans were besides interested in trading with Native Americans for giant oil and otter, beaver, and fox furs. By the early on 1600s, Europeans had set up a act of trade posts in North America .
english exploration besides contributed to a war between England and Spain. As english ships roamed the seas, some captains, nicknamed “ ocean dogs, ” began raiding spanish ports and ships to take their gold. between 1577 and 1580, ocean cad Francis Drake sailed around the worldly concern. He besides claimed partially of what is now California for England, ignoring Spain ’ south claims to the area .
The English raids added to other tensions between England and Spain. In 1588, King Philip II of Spain sent an armada, or fleet of ships, to invade England. With 130 heavily armed vessels and about thirty thousand men, the spanish Armada seemed an invincible impel. But the smaller English fleet was fast and well armed. Their guns had a longer compass, so they could attack from a safe outdistance. After several battles, a act of the armada ’ s ships had been sunk or driven ashore. The rest turned around but faced awful storms on the room home. Fewer than half of the ships made it back to Spain .
The get the better of of the spanish Armada marked the begin of a shift in baron in Europe. By 1630, Spain no long dominated the continent. With Spain ’ randomness refuse, other countries—particularly England and the Netherlands—took a more active agent role in trade and colonization around the world .

Bartolomé de Las Casas: From Conquistador to Protector of the Indians

Overview
Bartolomé de las Casas / General Archive of the Indies, Wikimedia Commons Bartolomé de las Casas experienced a remarkable change of kernel during his life. At foremost, he participated in Spain ’ sulfur conquest and village of the Americas. Later in life, he criticized and condemned it. For more than fifty years, he fought for the rights of the defeated and enslaved peoples of Latin America. How did this conquistador become known as “ the Protector of the Indians ? ”
Bartolomé de las Casas ( bahr–taw–law–MEY day las KAH-sahs ) ran through the streets of Seville, Spain, on March 31, 1493. He was barely nine years old and on his direction to see Christopher Columbus, who had just returned from his first voyage to the Americas. Bartolomé wanted to see him and the “ Indians, ” as they were called, as they paraded to the church .
Bartolomé ’ s father and uncles were looking forward to seeing Columbus, adenine well. Like many other people in Europe during the late 1400s, they saw the Americas as a put of opportunity. They signed up to join Columbus on his second ocean trip. Two years after that, Bartolomé followed in his don ’ south footsteps and voyaged to the Americas himself. He sailed to the island of Hispaniola, the contemporary nations of Haiti and the Dominican Republic .
Las Casas as Conquistador and Priest
Depiction of Spanish atrocities committed in the conquest of Cuba in Las Casas’s “Brevisima relación de la destrucción de las Indias”. The print was made by two Flemish artists who had fled the Southern Netherlands because of their Protestant faith: Joos van Winghe was the designer and Theodor de Bry the engraver. / Peace Palace Library, Wikimedia Commons One historian wrote that when Las Casas first gear arrived in the Americas, he was “ not much better than the rest of the gentlemen-adventurers who rushed to the New World, bent on quickly acquiring fortunes. ” He supported the spanish conquest of the Americas and was a firm servant of Spain ’ s king and queen, Ferdinand and Isabella. once in Hispaniola, Las Casas helped to manage his forefather ’ randomness farms and businesses. Enslaved Indians worked in the syndicate ’ mho fields and mines .
spanish conquistadors wanted to gain wealth and aura in the Americas. They had another goal, as well—to convert Indians to Christianity. Las Casas shared this goal. so, the young conquistador went back to Europe to become a priest. He returned to Hispaniola sometime in 1509 or 1510. There he began to teach and baptize the Indians. At the same time, he continued to manage indian slaves .
On a Path to Change
History much seems to be made up of moments when person has a change of heart. The path that he or she has been traveling takes a dramatic flex. It often appears to others that this change is sudden. In reality, a serial of events normally causes a person to make the decision to change. One such event happened to Las Casas in 1511 .
roman Catholics in Hispaniola witnessed atrocious acts of cruelty and injustice against the native peoples of the West Indies at the hands of the spanish conquistadors. One of the priests there, Father Antonio de Montesinos, spoke out against the harsh treatment of the Indians in a sermon delivered to a spanish congregation in Hispaniola in 1511. De Montesinos said :

You are in deadly sin. .. for the cruelty and absolutism you use in
dealing with these innocent people. .. by what right or judge do
you keep these Indians in such a barbarous and atrocious servitude ?
. .. Why do you keep them so oppressed ?. .. Are not these people
besides human beings ?

One historian called this sermon “ the first cry for department of justice in America ” on behalf of the Indians. Las Casas recorded the sermon in one of his books, History of the Indies. No one is certain if he was portray at the sermon or listen about it late. But one thing seems certain ; even though he must have seen some of the same injustices described by de Montesinos, Las Casas continued to support the spanish conquest and the goals of conquering newfangled lands, earning wealth, and converting Indians to Christianity .
however, in 1513, something happened that changed Las Casas ’ randomness life. He took part in the seduction of Cuba. As a advantage, he received more amerind slaves and an encomienda, or down grant. But he besides witnessed a massacre. The spanish killed thousands of innocent Indians, including women and children, who had welcomed the spanish into their town. In his koran The destruction of the Indies : A brief Account, he wrote, “ I saw here cruelty on a scale no support being has ever seen or expects to see. ”
A Turning Point
Monument of Taino chief Hatuey in Yara city, depicting the moment he was burnt by Spanish soldiers / Photo by Astroheredero, Wikimedia Commons The Cuban slaughter in 1513 and other scenes of violence against Indians Las Casas witnessed last pushed him to a twist point. He could no long believe that the spanish conquest was right. Before, he had thought that entirely some individuals acted cruelly and inhumanely. now he saw that the wholly spanish system of conquest brought only death and suffer to the people of the West Indies .
On August 15, 1514, when he was about thirty years previous, Las Casas gave a startle sermon. He asked his congregation to free their enslave Indians. He besides said that they had to return or pay for everything they had taken off from the Indians. He refused to forgive the colonists ’ sins in confession if they used Indians a forced labor. then he announced that he would give up his ownership of Indians and the business he had inherited from his forefather .
Protector of the Indians
The Church of the Dominican Convent of San Pablo in Valladolid where Bartolomé de Las Casas was consecrated as Bishop on March 30, 1544. / Photo by Rastrojo, Wikimedia Commons For the stay of his life, Las Casas contend for the rights of the Indians in the Americas. He traveled back and forth to Europe working on their behalf. He talked with popes and kings, debate enemies, and wrote letters and books on the national .
Las Casas influenced both a pope and a king. In 1537, Pope Paul III wrote that Indians were release human beings, not slaves, and that anyone who enslaved them could be thrown out of the Catholic Church. In 1542, Holy Roman emperor Charles V, who ruled Spain, issued the New Laws, banning bondage in spanish America .
In 1550 and 1551, Las Casas besides took part in a celebrated argue against Juan Ginés Sepúlveda in Spain. Sepúlveda tried to prove that Indians were “ natural slaves. ” Many Spanish, particularly those hungry for wealth and glory, shared this belief. Las Casas stormily argued against Sepúlveda with the same message he would deliver over and over throughout his biography. Las Casas argued that :
• Indians, like all human beings, have rights to life and autonomy.
• The spanish steal indian farming through bally and unjust wars.
• There is no such thing as a good encomienda.
• Indians have the right to make war against the spanish .
Las Casas died in 1566. The voices and the deeds of the conquistadors slowly eroded the memory of his words. But in other european countries, people began to read The Devastation of the Indies : A brief Account. As time passed, more of Las Casas ’ second works were published. In the centuries to follow, fighters for department of justice took up his name as a symbol for their own struggles for human rights .
The Legacy of Las Casas
Monument to Bartolomé de las Casas in Seville, Spain / Photo by Hispalois, Wikimedia Commons today, historians remember Las Casas as the beginning person to actively oppose the oppression of Indians and to call for an end to indian slavery. Later, in the nineteenth hundred, Las Casas inspired both Father Hidalgo, the church father of mexican independence, and Simón Bolívar, the liberator of South America .
In the 1960s, mexican American César Chávez learned about injustice at an early age. His class worked as migrants, moving from locate to place to pick crops. With scantily an eighth-grade education, Chávez organized workers, formed a union, and won better pay and better make and surviving conditions. Speaking for the powerless, he rallied people to his side with his cry, “ Sí, Se Puede ! ” ( “ Yes, We Can ! ” ) precisely as the name “ Chávez ” will always be connected to the struggles of the farm workers, the identify “ Las Casas ” will forever be connected to any fight for human rights and dignity for the native people of the Americas .

The Impact of Exploration on Europe

The voyages of explorers had a dramatic impingement on european commerce and economies. As a result of exploration, more goods, raw materials, and precious metals entered Europe. Mapmakers cautiously charted trade routes and the locations of newly discovered lands. By the 1700s, european ships traveled trade routes that spanned the ball. New centers of department of commerce developed in the port cities of the Netherlands and England .
exploration and barter contributed to the emergence of capitalism. This economic system is based on investing money for profit. Merchants gained great wealth by trade and selling goods from around the world. many of them used their profits to finance placid more voyages and to start trade companies. other people began investing money in these companies and shared in the profits. soon, this type of shared ownership was applied to other kinds of businesses .
Another aspect of the capitalist economy concerned the direction people exchanged goods and services. Money became more authoritative as precious metals flowed into Europe. rather of having a fixed price, items were sold for prices that were set by the candid market. This mean that the price of an item depended on how much of the token was available and how many people wanted to buy it. Sellers could charge high prices for barely items that many people wanted. If the supply of an item was large and few people wanted it, sellers lowered the price. This kind of system, based on supply and demand, is called a market economy .
labor, excessively, was given a money measure. Increasingly, people began working for hire rather of immediately providing for their own needs. Merchants hired people to work from their own cottages, turning raw materials from oversea into finished products. This growing bungalow industry was specially significant in the manufacture of textiles. Often, stallion families worked at family, spinning wool into thread or weaving train of thought into fabric. bungalow industry was a step toward the system of factories operated by capitalists in former centuries .
A final resultant role of exploration was a new economic policy called commerce. european rulers believed that building up wealth was the best way to increase a nation ’ sulfur exponent. For this reason, they tried to reduce the products they bought from other countries and to increase the items they sold .
Having colonies was a samara separate of this policy. Nations looked to their colonies to supply crude materials for their industries at home. These industries turned the raw materials into finished goods that they could sell back to their colonies, deoxyadenosine monophosphate well as to other countries. To protect this valuable craft with their colonies, rulers much forbade colonists from deal with early nations .
primitively published by Flores World History, free and open access, republished for educational, non-commercial purposes .

Like this:

Like

Loading…

Comments

comments

Continue Reading