Effects of the Age of Exploration Essay Sample

The age of exploration began with Columbus landing on an island in 1492 that he thought was a part of Asia. That island was a part of an area unknown to the people of Afro-Eurasia, which would later be called North and South America. Throughout the 16th century and beyond, European powers, such as Spain and Portugal, conquered the Americas in hopes of obtaining potential sources of revenue, to spread their religion and to gain more power overall. This led to an exchange of resources, a change in American demographics and the emergence of water empires. The age of exploration greatly transformed the colonies as a result of migration, expatriation, and intermixing. However, although colonies were created to provide a new way to make money, colonies themselves didn’t benefit economically from the resources they traded since it required a lot of labor to obtain such resources.  

European colonization resulted in a large transformation of the Americas in terms of population and lifestyle. Before the age of exploration, the islands in the Caribbean were filled with millions of indigenous people but due to the Spanish forcefully expatriating them, these islands became uninhabited (Doc 6). This visualizes how European contact rapidly depopulated the natives and made Europeans the majority of people living in the Americas as well as gain control of it. Another example of the drastic change in population is in Peru where there were people such as Spaniards, indigenous people, Africans and people with mixed heritage. The Spanish set a social hierarchy with people of Spanish heritage at the top and African and Indigenous people at the bottom (Doc 3). The diversity in Peru demonstrates the effects of the age of exploration through expatriation, colonization, intermixing and the slave trade. Additionally, the era also caused an exchange of food and animals between the East and West Hemispheres. The Americas were introduced to animals such as “horses, pigs, cattle and sheep” (Doc 4). The exchange made a drastic change in agriculture in the new world because the domestic animals and crops that were introduced made food production easier and faster than the Pre-columbian era. Therefore, the colonies changed by having a more diverse population and being introduced to food and animals from the Old world. 

Although colonization allowed access to more resources, colonies didn’t benefit from these resources compared to their mother countries. Water empires practiced mercantilism, the practice of mainly trading with their colonies so that they would be more independent. The colonies would sell items such as gold and silver at a low price only to get manufactured goods from their mother country at a high price (Doc 1). Colonies provided many resources for their mother country but because of mercantilism, a system favorable for the mother country, they do not get the same kind of benefits as the mother country. An example of the effects of mercantilism is the Spanish empire. The demand for gold and silver and other colonial resources in Spain was high but the Spanish colonies were running out of gold and silver because of this demand and needed slave labor in order to meet it (Doc 5). Although high demand can be beneficial when selling something, it can be bad when lacking the resources to meet such as in this case for the Spanish colonies. Since the colonies needed labor to meet demand, they used enslaved Africans which was expensive for the Spaniards. The Portuguese also needed slave labor in order to aid their sugar economy in Brazil. The demand was so high that Brazil had the largest imports of slaves during the Atlantic Slave Trade era. One of the affected was Nzinga Mmemba, a ruler of the African Kingdom of the Congo, who wrote a letter to the Portuguese king asking to stop the Portuguese kidnapping and enslaving people from his country (Doc 7). The topic of the letter implies that the high demand for slave labor not only was expensive but it was so high to the point they’re taking so many Africans away. Overall, colonies gave more than they received, and required a lot of slave labor in order sustain their economies and high demand. 

Therefore, the Age of Exploration made an impactful change by dramatically changing demographics. The colonies, however, did not benefit from the resources that their land provided. Colonization caused the native population to decrease and it increased Europeans and Africans living in the Americas. It also introduced new animals and foods to the Americas. Colonies traded resources to their mother country so that the mother country doesn’t have to depend on other countries. However, mercantilism favors the mother country and it makes the colonies work hard but get little in benefits.