What was the europeans reaction to the new world

The transfer of disease between the Old World and New World was part of the phenomenon known as the Columbian Exchange. The diseases brought to the New World proved to be exceptionally deadly to the indigenous populations, and the epidemics had very different effects in different regions of the Americas. The most vulnerable groups were those with a relatively small population and little built-up immunity.

Many island-based groups were annihilated: the Caribs and Arawaks of the Caribbean nearly ceased to exist, as did the Beothuks of Newfoundland.

While disease swept swiftly through the densely populated empires of Mesoamerica, the more scattered populations of North America saw a slower spread. Estimates of the pre-Columbian population have ranged from 8.

In Peru, the indigenous pre-contact population of approximately 6. Storming of the Teocalli by Cortez and His Troops : While epidemic disease was by far the leading cause of the population decline of the American indigenous peoples after , there were other contributing factors—all of them related to European contact and colonization.

One of these factors was warfare. From the 15th century onward, European nations invaded the New World and began establishing empires throughout the continent. While the Americas remained firmly under the control of indigenous peoples in the first decades of European invasion, conflict increased as colonization spread and Europeans placed greater demands upon the indigenous populations, including expecting them to convert to Christianity either Catholicism or Protestantism.

The Spanish, English, and French were the most powerful nations to establish empires in the new lands. Beginning with the arrival of Christopher Columbus, the Spanish Empire expanded for four centuries — across most of present-day Central America, the Caribbean islands, Mexico, and much of the rest of North America. The empire also claimed territory in present-day British Columbia; the states of Alaska, Washington, and Oregon; and the western half of South America.

This area was inhabited by the Chibchan speaking nations, including the indigenous Muisca and Tairona people. He explored areas to the north, looking for a Fountain of Youth, and landed on a peninsula on the coast of North America, which he named Florida. The conquistadors, believing they held considerable military and technological superiority over the native cultures, attacked and destroyed the Aztecs in By the early 16th century, Spanish conquistadors had penetrated deep into Central and South America.

Buenos Aires suffered attacks by the indigenous peoples that forced the settlers away, and in , the site was abandoned. A second and permanent settlement was established in , by Juan de Garay. It was the first step in a long campaign—which took advantage of a recent civil war and the enmity of indigenous nations the Incas had subjugated—that required decades of fighting to subdue the mightiest empire in the Americas.

The brutal practices of the conquistadors known as the Black Legend , as recorded by the Spanish themselves, were applied through the encomienda, a system ostensibly set up to protect people from warring tribes as well as to teach them the Spanish language and the Catholic religion. In practice, though, it was tantamount to slavery.

Spanish colonization of the Americas : The red in this image illustrates the Spanish Empire under the House of Bourbon in the late 18th century; pink illustrates the regions under Spanish control or influence at various times; lavender illustrates the territories lost at or before the Peace of Utrecht ; and purple illustrates the Portuguese possessions ruled jointly under the Spanish sovereign British exploration of the New World centered on searching for a northwest passage through the continent.

Cabot explored the North American coast and correctly deduced that the spherical shape of the earth made the north—where the longitudes are much shorter—a quicker route to the New World than a trip to the islands in the south, where Columbus was exploring. Encouraged, he asked the English monarchy for a more substantial expedition to further explore and settle the lands that he found. England remained preoccupied with internal affairs for much of the 16th century.

However, by the beginning of the 17th century, under the rule of Elizabeth I, the empire had consolidated much of the British Isles and was becoming a much more formidable force on the world stage.

With the defeat of the Spanish Armada in , England replaced Spain as the dominant world power. This led to the gradual decline of Spanish influence in the New World and the widening of English imperial interests.

Sir Walter Raleigh sought to establish an empire in the New World after having gained considerable favor from Queen Elizabeth I by suppressing rebellions in Ireland. On March 25, , the Queen granted Raleigh a charter for the colonization of the area of North America known as Virginia.

Raleigh and Elizabeth I intended that the venture should provide riches from the New World and a base from which to send privateers on raids against the treasure fleets of Spain. Supplying the colonists became troublesome due to continuing war with Spain. Henry Hudson was an English sea explorer and navigator in the early 17th century. Hudson made two attempts on behalf of English merchants to find a prospective northwest passage via a route above the Arctic Circle.

He explored the region around the modern-day New York metropolitan area and is known for exploring the river which eventually was named for him, thereby laying the foundation for Dutch colonization of the region. In , Hudson discovered a strait and immense bay on his final expedition while searching for the Northwest Passage. How different it was in the New World. Over in the West Indies, the only Danish newspaper, the Royal Danish American Gazette, published significantly in English, printed the complete Declaration as early as August 17, even placing it prominently on the front page, which was otherwise reserved for advertising.

The Danes in the colonies seemed themselves to have become Americans. It was not only the editors in Denmark and elsewhere , nosy for news, who were excited by the events in America. As early as October 22, , A.

So does a firsthand glimpse of the popular mood in Copenhagen. The Aftenpost carried a column—as we would now call it—by one Edmund Balling, describing life in the city; it sounds like a city column by Jimmy Breslin or Mike Royko. At the end of he found them debating the War of Independence. Have we the newspapers? Well, what does England say now? Yes, this War will likely make a rather considerable Change in Europe. As in Belgium, the impact did not lessen even after America achieved its independence.

In a Danish civil servant, C. But as we come across the editors, their newspapers, and their readers, the European response is telling us something very important about the American Revolution itself. It was carried in the colonies and overseas by the assertiveness of the American middle class.

Two vigorous merchant cities—Hamburg and Dubrovnik—illustrate the response of a newly aggressive merchant class in Europe. Hamburg was a free port, as most of its dock area still is its official name even now is the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg , and since the Reformation had been the proud refuge of Protestants, other dissidents, and refugees. Ports are naturally liberal, being used to strangers, with their different cultures and ideas. When the Declaration was published in the Staats und Gelehrte Zeitung, its citizens naturally sympathized with the colonies in their claim to be a free trading nation, with which Hamburg could expand its commercial ties as it did after the war , greatly reinforcing its prosperity.

Completing the story, another cargo would eventually stream through Hamburg: a vast number of immigrants to the New World from Russia and Eastern Europe. Dubrovnik had risen to be a powerful merchant republic in the Middle Ages, and had existed since then virtually independent under the protection, in succession, of Venice, Hungary, and Turkey—until Napoleon, with his usual disrespect for history, abolished the republic in , the same year in which he occupied Hamburg.

Again, far away on the Adriatic, the citizens of a strong merchant port were stimulated by the news from America, a point made in a book published by the city of Dubrovnik to celebrate the bicentennial of the Declaration. I t is the response of the middle class in Europe that throws light on the attitudes in England.

To the ruling class in England the Declaration of Independence did not herald the dawn of a new age, or introduce new abstract principles of freedom and equality that had a universal application.

In fact, it seemed to them less of a threat than it did to the ruling monarchs on the Continent, since they enjoyed many of the freedoms the Americans were claiming. It was to them a very local document, a list as indeed it was of very local grievances. Neither it nor any shot, in their view, was heard round the world.

Both had been aimed, after all, at them; and on the whole they took it like gentlemen. No one can blame him for wishing to write the great book, or for wishing to receive some patronage as he labored at his task. He looked, of course, to the government for an appointment, and accepted the post of one of the Lords Commissioner of Trade and Plantations.

Gibbon with materials for writing the History of the Decline of the British Empire. Attributed to Charles James Fox, a dauntless leader of the opposition and staunch friend of the Americans, two verses ran:.

Though the consummate and by then aged orator William Pitt, for whom Pittsburgh was named, reinforced his impassioned philippic in defense of the American colonists by collapsing unconscious on the floor of the House at the end. We also know how the American news was received outside London.

In December the daily journal of the Rev. The war then seems to have aroused little interest until there was another official Day of Prayer in , for it was by then clear that God was not pulling his weight. My Squire and Lady at the Church. They connected the Christianization of the world with the second coming of Christ. If secular and religious traditions evoked utopian visions of the New World, they also induced nightmares.

The ancients described wonderful civilizations, but barbaric, evil ones as well. Moreover, late medieval Christianity inherited a rich tradition of hatred for non-Christians derived in part from the Crusaders' struggle to free the Holy Land and from warfare against the Moors. European encounters with the New World were viewed in light of these preconceived notions.

To plunder the New World of its treasures was acceptable because it was populated by pagans. In , Giovanni da Verrazzano was commissioned to locate a northwest passage around North America to India. He was followed in by Jacques Cartier , who explored the St. Lawrence River as far as present-day Montreal. In , Jean Ribault headed an expedition that explored the St.

Johns River area in Florida. But the Spanish soon pushed the French out of Florida, and thereafter, the French directed their efforts north and west. Instead, the French traded with inland tribes for furs and fished off the coast of Newfoundland. New France was sparsely populated by trappers and missionaries and dotted with military forts and trading posts. Although the French sought to colonize the area, the growth of settlements was stifled by inconsistent policies. Initially, France encouraged colonization by granting charters to fur-trading companies.

Then, under Cardinal Richelieu, control of the empire was put in the hands of the government-sponsored Company of New France. The company, however, was not successful, and in the king took direct control of New France. Although more prosperous under this administration, the French empire failed to match the wealth of New Spain or the growth of neighboring British colonies. The Dutch were also engaged in the exploration of America. Formerly a Protestant province of Spain, the Netherlands was determined to become a commercial power and saw exploration as a means to that end.

In the newly formed New Netherland Company obtained a grant from the Dutch government for the territory between New France and Virginia. About ten years later another trading company, the West India Company, settled groups of colonists on Manhattan Island and at Fort Orange.

The Dutch also planted trading colonies in the West Indies. By the mid-sixteenth century, however, England had recognized the advantages of trade with the East, and in English merchants enlisted Martin Frobisher to search for a northwest passage to India. Between and Frobisher as well as John Davis explored along the Atlantic coast.

Gilbert headed two trips to the New World. He landed on Newfoundland but was unable to carry out his intention of establishing military posts. By the seventeenth century, the English had taken the lead in colonizing North America, establishing settlements all along the Atlantic coast and in the West Indies.

Sweden and Denmark also succumbed to the attractions of America, although to a lesser extent. This colony was short-lived, however, and was taken over by the Dutch in Croix and other islands in the cluster of the Virgin Islands. Parry, The Spanish Seaborne Empire ; 2nd ed. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present.

Columbus Day is a U. It was unofficially celebrated in a number of cities and states as early as the 18th century, but did not become a