Essay The Voyage of Christopher Columbus - 1421 Words

In 1492, an event took place that would change forever the way the world is viewed, and the way people viewed themselves. When Columbus set foot on that Caribbean island on an August morning over five hundred years ago, he set in motion one of the greatest migrations the world has ever seen. Two separate and distinct worlds met that day, even though both had populated their separate continents. One world, the old world, was made up of Europeans looking for fame and fortune, not necessarily for new and uncharted lands. Divine supports this idea by stating, â€Å"They (explorers) came not as colonists but as fortune hunters seeking instant wealth, preferably gold, and they were not squeamish about the means they used to obtain it† (Divine,†¦show more content†¦I will be focusing my attention on how each party conducted their first meetings with the natives, and what motives came into play on their explorations such as; religion, gold, and slavery. When these explorers met the native population, they encountered a people who had never had contact with anyone besides inhabits of their own world. The Europeans, on the other hand, had been trading with Africans, Muslims, Mongols, East Indians, and other Europeans for differing periods of time, thus being exposed to different types of culture in the past. On the other hand the isolation of the natives began some thirty to forty thousand years ago, when the last major ice age occurred. Divine supports this by saying, â€Å"The first people to cross this land bridge were small bands of Siberian hunters in pursuit of giant mammals†¦the migration of these nomadic groups took place over thousands of years† (Divine, p.3). Gradually, new and different societies and cultures developed among the natives, depending upon the region where they settled. Divine mentions this by saying, â€Å"Over the centuries, relatively isolated tribal groups had developed their own cultures , patterns of kinship, and spoken languages† (Divine, p.3). When Columbus initially arrived, he found only primitive inhabitants, he states this in the first document of the first chapter of Gorn, â€Å"a very poor people †¦ they do not carry arms,† (Gorn, p.8). In reality the nativesShow MoreRelatedThe Voyage of Christopher Columbus1541 Words   |  7 PagesAmerican History I 07/08/05 Christopher Columbus Voyage to North America Spanish exploration first began with a series of revolutions. First, the Commercial Revolution generated economic stability. Second, the Intellectual Revolution generated interest in the Earths composition and the pursuit of exploration. Europe then called for a political revolution to end the disorganized and disorderly rule of its government. 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