16th Century European Explorations Essay

What are the reasons that made the European explorers risk taking the hazardous journey to the Americans in the 16th century. The Europeans in the first place were not aware that there is a continent known as America and they came to know of it after Christopher Columbus went on his search for a route to the Far East but landed on the Americans by mistake. He thought he was already in India when he saw the Indian natives in the Americas. My main interest in this essay is to discuss about the three major reasons that made European explorers of the 16th century risk to move all the way from Europe to the Americas. Shortly after Columbus landed in the Americas, he explored further in this region sometimes back in 1492. His real intention was to look for a short cut to the East Asia but fortunately or unfortunately landed into the Americas. After further exploration, he found that the region had a very fertile soil for farming. When he returned to his mother country he told them how the area was suitable for agriculture, they European felt very intrigued to go and see for themselves. Many rich Spaniards who were facing sharp competition in their motherland Spain sent their envoys all the way to the Americas to look for a virgin place where they could establish their new businesses. On this understanding then they were motivated by commercial reasons. The European explorers and especially the Spaniards established their first settlement in Virginia at a place called Jamestown. Various companies that had already established themselves in Spain sent them to market these companies. The example of these companies was chartered Virginia Company which was seeking for new business opportunities. Most of these companies were in search of gold but when they realized it was not forthcoming they switched to plantation farming. At first they were reluctant but their leaders convinced them that its search was not addressing their immediate need that was affecting them and this was food. After this they established cash crop business especially at Maryland. In the beginning they used European immigrants and the local natives to work in these plantations but when they proved to be unable to meet the demand for the job, slaves started being shipped in form West Africa. The second reason why European explorers risked going to the Americas was the search for a free ground where they could practice their religion without fear of being persecuted. Most of these were Protestants who were against the Roman Catholic. Due to the 16th century protestant reformation different sects emerged, something that provoked the attention of the Western government as the Christendom of this region became disturbed by these divisions. One of these sects was Puritans who constantly questioned the integrity of the Roman Catholic. They were specifically concerned with the religions roles that were done by this church and yet they had no biblical backing. This group faced very strong resistance from the government authorities who were determined to crash them. They reacted to this move by persecuting all the puritans in their areas of jurisdiction. Due to this persecution, more than twenty thousand dissenters made their way to the new land when they went to the Americas, the Pennsylvanian authority making this colony to be a home for Quaker refugees, Baptists and Swiss Protestants, welcomed them. Those who faced persecution at home were lured with less costly land and religious freedom in the Americas and for these reasons they had to sail to Americas rather than face persecution at home at home. The third reason for the Europeans to go to the Americas is because they were sponsored by their mother states. No European nation wanted to be left behind in the exploration game. For example Christopher Columbus was sponsored by Spain to go on exploration expedition in a bid to look for a direct route to the Far East. Another sponsored explorer was a colonialist known as John Cabot. He was the first to discover the newfound land was sent by England. Portugal sent its own colonialists to explore on its behalf. Portugal sent Pedro Cabral to go to Brazil to look for colonies. The Portuguese sponsored explorers discovered Canada. What followed after these sponsored explorations was a wave of conquest especially on the part of the Spaniards. They were the first to establish a colonial rule in the Americas. Therefore we have seen that there were various reasons that forced the Europeans to sail all the way to the Americas despite the fact that they were not well familiar with this region. It is very clear that one of the reasons was commercial based, the second was because of church persecution in Europe and the last one was the temptation the explorers received from the European governments. So this exploration was not done for the sake of it but for specificreasons