European Expansion and the New World

Many European adventurists wanted to explore the unknown and discover new lands in far away places. .
             Improvement in technology also played a major part in the European Expansion. Europeans started to build more durable ships, such as the caravel. The hull ship design was improved so that it was able to ride out rough ocean storms. Ship builders began to put canons on the decks of these ships for the first time. Explorers also developed better navigational skills, like the astrolabe, the compass, and more precise maps causing them to learn more about geography. .
             European Expansion brought along many consequences in its time. The Triangular Trade Route was a branch of trade between Europe, Africa, and the Americans. The Europeans would trade goods to the west coast of Africa and would receive captured Africans in exchange. The Africans were then taken across the Atlantic. Once in America, African slaves were traded for New World produce and raw materials. This made African trade a critical component to the lives of those in the New World. This also made many Africans become a very influential part of the history of America. Slaves brought all of their culture, traditions, and skills to America with them and this changed the economic and social structures of the New World. Slave demand became extremely popular to the Old World and helped to provide a very much needed solution to the European problem of worker shortage. .
             By 1540, around 10,000 slaves were brought to the Americas each year. Capitalism rose due to the growth of city life as well as trade expansion. Mercantilism also rose due to economic growth and an increase in royal power. Rulers encouraged and supported exports (to sell products to other countries) and discouraged imports (to buy products from other countries). This trade philosophy hoped to supply the ruler's respective home country with wealth as well as new products.
             A large outcome of European Expansion was the challenge against the European ideals about the world, which lead them to question the idea of human nature and existence.