"New World Beginnings"

Essay by ccmustangs2001High School, 11th gradeA+, September 2004

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Indirect Discoverers of the New World

The American continents were slow to yield their virginity. The all-conquering Romans, a half century after the birth of Christ, expanded their empire northwestward as far as Britain.

America was to be a child of Europe, not of a specific country, such as England.

Christian crusaders must take high rank among the indirect discoverers of America. Whatever their true motives, they were avowedly attempting to wrest the Holy Land from the polluting hand of the Moslem infidel.

By the time the strange-smelling goods reached the Italian merchants at Venice and Genoa, they were so costly that purchasers and profits alike were narrowly limited.

European appetites were further whetted when foot-loose Marco Polo, an Italian adventurer, returned to Europe in 1295, after a stay of nearly twenty years in China.

Portuguese Pathfinders

As the kings gradually subordinated the nobles, the modern national state emerged in Western Europe from the feudalism of the middle ages.

The first nations to unite were the first to flourish as colonial empire builders - Portugal, Spain, England, France, and the Netherlands.

Little Portugal took the lead in discovering what came to be the coveted water route to the Indies. A courageous band of Portuguese navigators, edging cautiously down the pistol-handle coast of Africa, pushed southeasterly in the general direction of Asia.

Columbus Stumbles Upon a New World

Christopher Columbus, a skilled Italian seaman, now stepped upon the stage of history. A man of vision, energy, resourcefulness, and courage, he finally managed after heartbreaking delays, to gain the ear of the Spanish ruler.

Daringly, he spread the sails of his cockshell craft. Winds were friendly and progress rapid, but the superstitious sailors, fearful of sailing over the edge of the world, grew increasingly mutinous.

Columbus's sensational achievement has obscured the fact...