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Was the Age of Exploration a time of discovery or invasion? Respond below. 

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Was the Age of Exploration a time of discovery or invasion? Respond below. 

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I believe that the Age of Exploration was a time of invasion. The reason why I believe that it was a time of invasion is because of the motives and goals every explorer had. These goals were conquering land, spices, and trade routes. More specifically God, gold, and glory. An example of this would be Cortes and the Spanish. Cortes was very greedy, he went to the Aztec city with some 500 men and raided, burned, and looted. He tried to convert Montezuma II, the leader of the Aztec, and the Aztec citizens to Christianity. Cortes ended up slaughtering the Aztec people with fire, weapons and disease. Thousands of Aztec's died because of Cortes and his men. Another example of this would be Sir Walter Raleigh and Queen Elizabeth. Sir Walter Raleigh was given orders from Queen Elizabeth to voyage too North America and discover, explore, ¨To discover, search, find out any heathen or barbarous lands and countries not possessed by any Christian Prince or Christian people…to horde, occupy, take, and enjoy these lands.¨
-Queen Elizabeth
As stated in the quote Queen Elizabeth gave Sir Walter Raleigh permission, but really ordered him to horde, occupy, take and enjoy the lands. From this we can infer why the English and overall every explorer enslaved, looted and more to the Native people. They believed that the natives were a lesser race than them and therefore they thought they could treat the Native people any way they wanted.

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The English arrived in North America in 1580. They traded with the natives and were treated very well. The English tried to convert the natives to Christianity and most likely enslave them, steal, horde and more like Cortes and his men.

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The Aztecs and their leader Montezuma II witnessed many events such as the flooding of their great city Tenochtitlan. These signs meant that grave danger was heading towards them. Cortes and his men had left Cuba in a search for gold and glory, defying Spanish orders. After making it to the Yucatan Peninsula, Cortes and his men had a small battle with 400 natives which ended in the complete destruction of the natives. The Natives eventually submitted to Cortes giving him information about the location of the Aztec capital. Once Cortes arrived he burned the Aztec's ships so that it would be impossible for them to escape when the battle began.

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Positive: The positive side to conquering new land is the discovery of new animals, elements and more.
Negative: The negative side to conquering new land is the conflict that must be resolved most likely by fighting to completely control the land.

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Sir Walter Raleigh was given orders from Queen Elizabeth to voyage to North America and discover, explore, ¨find out any heathen or barbarous lands and countries not possessed by any Christian Prince or Christian people…to horde, occupy, take, and enjoy these lands.¨
-Queen Elizabeth
Queen Elizabeth did not want her men to explore, discover, horde, occupy, take and enjoy the lands. Based upon this Queen Elizabeth gave her men permission to take, steal, occupy and horde the Natives exactly like Cortes. I believe that they believed that they were a superior race compared to the Natives and believed that it was OK to do whatever they wanted to them.

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On November 8, 1519 Cortes and his men saw the great city of the Aztec, Tenochtitlan, and were in awe. Tenochtitlan being the capital of the Aztec was home to about 100000 Aztec citizens.
"This great city of Tenochtitlan is built on the salt lake, and no matter by what road you travel there are two leagues from the main body of the city to the mainland. There are four artificial causeways leading to it, and each is as wide as two cavalry lances. The city itself is as big as Seville or Cordoba. The main streets are very wide and very straight; some of these are on the land, but the rest and all the smaller ones are half on land, half canals where they paddle their canoes. All the streets have openings in places so that the water may pass from one canal to another. There are, in all districts of this great city, many temples or houses for their idols. They are all very beautiful buildings. Among st these temples there is one, whose great size and magnificence no human tongue could describe. All round inside this wall there are very elegant quarters with very large rooms and corridors where their priests live. There are as many as forty towers, all of which are so high that in the case of the largest there are fifty steps leading up to the main part of it.¨

-Hernan Cortes

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Positive: Spreading Christianity to others can give them a new, better life.
Negative: The people could revolt, not accept this, etc. and you will have gotten nowhere.

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December 23, 1535
Jacques Cartier writes that they will be spending their Christmas weeping for the dead due to a strange illness that has killed 50 of them and half of the rest of them are weak and close to death. Then on January 1, 1536, the son of the natives leader comes with several other natives with a cure for the disease.
¨In these times I am happy to receive any help.¨
-Jacques Cartier
Based upon this written statement Jacques Cartier was no too fond of the Natives due to ¨any help¨ and must have believed like the Spanish believed, that the Natives were savages.

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When Cortes arrived the Aztecs took him and his men to their leader Montezuma II who showered Cortes and his men with gifts, believing that Cortes was a god. The complete destruction of the native tribe soon reached Tenochtitlan. The Aztec citizens soon became afraid of Cortes and his men and believed that they were giving shelter to a monster. Cortes was afraid that Montezuma II and other Aztec citizens would find out soon so Cortes took Montezuma II captive. Cortes asked for a huge ransom of gold and jewelry. He then tried to convert Montezuma II to Christianity and tore down the Aztecs religious symbols and pictures of their gods. This led to the Aztec citizens rioting and eventually driving Cortes out of Tenochtitlan in 1520.

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Positive: Gold can make you, your country, others wealthy and overall give a person or many people a better life.
Negative: people can become obsessed with gold. They would do anything for it even kill or steal.

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Several Natives intruded on Captain John Smith and without any hesitation he went after them. Some he terrified, whipped and or imprisoned. Captain John Smith acted exactly like Cortes which leads us to the inference that the English were like the Spanish.

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The looting of Tenochtitlan soon reached Spain and a arrest party was sent to capture Cortes. Cortes surprised them on the beach which led to a short battle and ended with the death of their captain Narvaez. Cortes took his remaining men and the remaining men of Narvaez back to Tenochtitlan. They pillaged, looted, burned, brought a horrible disease known as small pox to the city and killed hundreds of Aztecs in the process. Montezuma II could do nothing and eventually abandoned the city. Smallpox ran through the city killing thousands of Aztecs and after 80 days of violence the Aztec general surrendered and submitted to Cortes. Cortes claimed the land for Spain and built what is now Mexico city upon the ruins of the Aztec.

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Positive: Glory can make you famous and wealthy causing you to have a better life.
Negative: What it takes to get glory. Depending on the situation glory could be obtained in a good way or in a bad way such as killing and or stealing.

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From this picture we can infer that Jacques Cartier was trying to convert the natives to Christianity like Cortes tried to do to Montezuma II. Cartier is pointing at the cross. The natives seem to be worshiping Cartier by bowing down to him as if he is some god. Exactly like what the Aztecs though of Cortes.

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Did Cortes embody the human spirit of exploration and acquisition of knowledge? No, Cortes did not embody the human spirit of exploration and acquisition. He did discover what is now Mexico city and many more things, but he killed, slaughtered and enslaved more than he explored and discovered. He looted, burned, left the deadly disease of Smallpox and overall completely destroyed the entire Aztec race.

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Positive: Spices were more valuable than gold and silver. Spices were used to flavor food and keep it fresh which made it very valuable. Spices could make a man rich.
Negative: Some spices were very expensive and only wealthy people used them. Spices were also very hard to find and take back with you.

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John Rolfe married Pocahontas as stated in the journal entry of Pocahontas's two brothers.
¨Two Powhatan sons came unto us to see their sister, at whose sight, seeing her well, though they heard to the opposite, they much rejoiced, promising to persuade their father to reconsider the marriage, and forever be friends with us. They were brought onboard and entertained.¨
Based upon this quote and the fact that John Rolfe, an English man, marrying a native shows that they were nothing like Cortes and the Spanish. They were kind and friendly compared to Cortes and his men slaughtering the Aztec.

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Positive: Trade routes allow people from different countries/ cultures to trade goods with others, so that they could receive items that are not found in their own countries that were necessary to have.
Negative: Often trade routes were controlled by a specific country or culture and did not allow people to follow the route and continue their journey.

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Positive: He had many goals such as finding a new trade route to bring spices back to Europe, map Africa to stop the spread of the Muslim kingdom which threaten Portugal. He was successful in creating a sailing school in 1419. His contributions and inspiration led Portugal to sail places like India and Asia setting a path for European explorers.
Negative: He was not able to meet some of his goals such as finding a new trade route to bring back spices to Europe and map Africa to stop the spread of the Muslim kingdom which threatened Portugal.

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Were the English and French any different from the Spanish when they reached the New World? They were different and the same compared to the Spanish. The Spanish had the same goal as the French and English, to explore and discover, but Cortes did more stealing, lieing and slaughtering of the Aztec people than exploring and discovering. I believe that the French and the English had the same mindset about the Natives as the Spanish. That the Natives were a lesser race and could be treated like so. The French and the English did torture, enslave, take prisoner, etc. like Captain John Smith did with the natives that intruded him. Some of the English and French were friendly such as John Rolfe. He married a Native woman, Pocahontas. Overall I think that the English and French were different than the Spanish because the English and French focused more on exploring and discovering than Cortes and his men.

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Positive: He set off West in the hopes of finding a new route to get to Asia but instead landed in America. He studied what he had discovered and headed back to share his findings with Spain and the rest of Europe.
Negative: He enslaved some of the natives, made them servants and brought them back to Spain.

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Were these motives and causes for exploration harmless? Some of them were harmless and others were not. Most of them were harmless such as the motive for gold, glory, spreading Christianity, spices and new trade routes. Then other motives and or explorers that did good things but also did bad things such as Columbus discovering America, which was harmless, but they brought back slaves which was harmful.