Colonization of the Americas

         The Europeans colonized the American continents in 1492. It is said that Christopher Columbus founded America during a Spanish expedition that started out sailing to India for trade, though many people were in and out of America long before he showed up. Europeans couldn’t help their curiosity and soon a new age began, the Age of Discovery, and colonization began. Spain, England, France, and Germans all sent explorers to this mystery land. It didn’t take long for them to have control over the entire western hemisphere.  Spanish Conquistadors, whom were given the right to conquer the new world, attacked and soon defeated large Indian colonies, like the Incas and the Aztecs.

            As the contact between the Old World and the New World grew, the Columbian Exchange, or the Grand Exchange, began. This was a transfer of plants, animals, foods, slaves, culture, and even disease between the eastern and the western hemisphere. The significance this made in the western civilization was huge. Not only did this New World provide tobacco, potatoes, cotton, and corn, for Europe, but this exchange also brought foreign disease, like smallpox, influenza, syphilis, and malaria, to the Americas, which began killing off the Natives. Europeans had to bring in African slaves soon after because their native slaves were all dying. This exchange changed all civilizations.

            America soon became the land of the supposed riches. The Jamestown colony was established in the hope that the land would provide them with gold. They eventually realized there was nothing there but that didn’t stop other explorers from looking for the wealth. The only thing really established from all of this was the first permanent settlements of the modern day.

            After everything had settled down, people began escaping to the new world for religious freedom. Disagreements and tension in Europe grew as they began drifting away from their Orthodox ways. The freedom of a new land was tantalizing to these settlers and with the help of charters they were allowed to settle and live the way they saw best fit. This was the real beginning of the New World.