AN: The Essays that follow were my practice runs for the AP Exam.

New World Exploration

The Americas themselves provided many opportunities to the people of the Old World. In the New World there were different peoples, new resources, and the possibility to improve on their lives in Europe. The most important opportunity, however, was that explorers could gain ground for their empires. They could conquer, as was humankind’s God given right. “God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it (Genesis 1:28a NIV).’” Countries were looking to expand their empires and improve their status of life.

Most explorers said their primary reason for exploring the Americas was to convert the local peoples they discovered. In one of his letters to Charles I of Spain Fernando Cortés wrote, “It should be believed…that these parts should be discovered…so that this fruit and merit before God should be enjoyed by Your Majesties, of having instructed these barbarian people, and have brought them through your commands to the True Faith (emphasis added).” The phase “this fruit and merit” indicates a reward for work done. Cortés may have introduced the Catholic clergy to Mexico, but he also sought riches to send back to Spain, as did many other explorers. Christopher Columbus, after exploring some of the Caribbean, also wrote back to his homeland with a report. “I presented them the natives with a variety of things, in order to secure their affection, and that they may become Christians, and enter into the service of their Highnesses and the Castilian nation, and also aid us in the procuring such things as they possess and we stand need of (emphasis added).” It is clearly stated that his intentions were to convert the natives and to have them assist in gaining what they had set out to find.

The Papal authority also had an invested interest in the conversion of the inhabitants in the New World. In the Papal Bull, Inter Caetera, both Spain and Portugal, after having divided the world between them, were given instruction to, “bring them the natives to the Catholic faith” and “train them in good morals.” They believed this would help them further the Catholic authority.

A second reason for the exploration and colonization of the Americas was to expand the empires of Europe. Richard Hakluyt, in a letter to Sir Philip Sidney, addresses Sidney’s patriotism in saying, “And surely if there were in us that desire to advance the honor of our country which ought to be in every good man, we would not all this while have foreslown the possessing of those lands which of equity and right appertain unto us…” Later in the letter Hakluyt comments that the northern coast of North America seemed to be reaching for England’s colonization. Fernando Cortés mentions in his letter to Charles I that the lands he discovered he did so in “the name of Your Royal Highnesses,” an indication of his dedication to his country and royalty.

Natural resources are a further reason for exploration and colonization. Any developing or developed country wants and needs raw resources. A New World with untapped resources provided that. Gold and other precious substances were the obvious influence to sail to the Americas, but once the explorers reached the new land they discovered a riches beyond precious stones. Richard Hakluyt the Elder wrote that there was a, “great waste woods be there of oak, cedar, pine, walnuts, and sundry other sorts” and, “mines of white or grey marble, jet, or other rich stone” may be found. In this same writing Hakluyt says, “the trade of whale and seal fishing and of divers other fishings in the great rivers, great bays, and seas there, shall presently defray the charge in good part or in all of the first fur enterprise…” Farming land was also an important commodity. England needed to support its growing population, which is why America with its, “great broad rivers…lying so long a tract with so excellent and so fertile a soil on both sides” provided a great growth opportunity. New foods and new exports were an opportunity as well to create income for the mother country.

Mercantilism was another influencing factor for countries trying to colonize the Americas. For economic self-sufficiency to be achieved, a mother country such as England or Spain, needed colonies to send raw goods and the mother country would provide manufactured goods in return. In the Navigation Act of 1660, the Parliament of England enacted trade regulations, which began the empire on the road towards economic self-sufficiency. “…from thence forward, no goods or commodities whatsoever shall be imported into or exported out of any lands, islands, plantations, or territories to his Majesty belonging or in his possession, or which may hereafter belong unto or be in the possession of his Majesty, his heirs, and successors…” In short, only those ships of English ownership and of English goods could enter English ports and that only English goods could be exported to England’s colonies. These were principal requisites of mercantilism, and they entered England’s economy.

For England another opportunity was, in Hakluyt’s words, “by God’s grace find out that short and easy passage by the Northwest which we have hitherto so long desired…” To sail to Asia, Portugal and Spain sailed around Africa’s Horn and the South American Horn, respectively. England had no route except over land. Therefore the network of bays, rivers, and seas gave England hope for a faster route to Asia. Though it was never realized, the hope for a northwest passage encouraged the exploration of the northern parts of America.

Lastly, a few groups of people came here for freedom to worship in their own way; the Pilgrims are a main example. William Bradford wrote in the Plymouth Plantation, “…if they the Pilgrims were in a place where they might have liberty and live comfortably, they would then practice as they did.” The Pilgrims escaped from England only to live as exiles in the Netherlands. They discovered how difficult it was to live in a different place. The Pilgrims came to understand that the only place they could truly live the way they had and worship the way they wanted was a land away from the problems and pressures of Europe. So they came to the New World to start a place of peace for those who wished for freedom.

In conclusion, all these factors contributed to the exploration and the colonization of the Americas. The countries of Europe needed raw resources and wanted to add land to their empires. Religious freedom and the economic freedom of mercantilism drove colonization. A northwest passage gave England hope for a faster route to Asia. And explorers were able to bring new and different materials back to their native land, which would lead to improved quality of life. All in all, the Americas provided mankind with a hopeful prospect of the future. Europeans were able to look beyond what they had known into something to be discovered and conquered. We discovered, we conquered, and we founded the United States of America.