Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus

Although nearly every phase of any exploration had its good and bad outcomes the benefits of Columbus' discovery of the New World far outweigh the negative results of that enterprise; because his discovery stimulated further development of both Europe and the New World. His voyage was an epochal and magnificent discovery in that it confirmed the roundness of the earth and gave new validity to science, expanded trade and opened new markets and led to the industrialization of Europe, and opening the doors to a new world because the Old World was overcrowded and torn by strife. Columbus' did not just discover land and resources rather he discovered the New World. A New World that offered hope, freedom, and a new opportunity. Even before Columbus was born, astronomers and mathematicians knew that the world was round. However the common misconception was that the world was square. It would be a myth to say that Columbus set out on the ocean blue with everybody thinking he would fall off the end of the world. Many knew in theory that the world was round, but in actuality there was no real evidence to confirm the roundness of the earth. Even though the theory of the world being round was not thoroughly verified until Magellan's crew sailed completely around the world in 1519-1522, Columbus dared to achieve the unthinkable, and confirmed, to an extent, that the world was round. "Scholars have frequently described the European discoveries as a manifestation of Renaissance curiosity about the physical universe - the desire to know more about the geography and people of the world" (McKay, 507). People have always been curious about what lies beyond their apparent reach. The Renaissance initiated a period of questioning that didn't die down for a long time. Even though the well-educated people knew the theoretical truth about the spherical shape of the earth, they still wanted to believe it in actuality.

As an explorer, Columbus not only confirmed the world was round, but he decoded the Atlantic wind system, discovered the magnetic variation in the Western hemisphere and, among other things, contributed to the mapping of the Atlantic and the New World (Fernбndez-Armesto, 182). Columbus' great skill in navigation paved the way for later explorers to come to the New World. Before he had set out in pursuit of the East Indies, he studied charts, maps, and journals from earlier explorers and was certain that he could reach the Far East by sailing westward. His calculations were beyond correct and he never quite realized the fact that he was nowhere near the Far East, but in reality was on a whole other continent. "The task he set for himself - to cross the Ocean Sea was literally beyond the capacity of any vessel of his day. The task he performed - to cross from Europe to a New World - was beyond the conception of many of his contemporaries" (Fernбndez-Armesto, 183). Nobody thought that Columbus could reach the Far East - much less anything at all. He achieved the highly impossible and instead of being praised, is put down for his faults. Although Columbus did not find the spices of the East Indies there were still many new things to trade in the New World. Tomatoes, peppers, peanuts, sunflowers, cashews, potatoes, and tobacco were brought to the Old World and sugar, cattle, pigs, sheep, chickens, and horses were introduced to the New World. The Europeans also brought diseases, which had a devastating effect on the isolated Indians because they had no immunity (McKay, 510). Many of the natives died from exposure to these European diseases, something Columbus could not have foreseen.

Due to the increase in new trading, the Spanish economy grew dramatically and its influence was felt all over Europe. The Spanish had found precious metals in the New World. At the same time Spain was involved in a steady population increase, which created a rise in the demand for food and goods. "The Spanish economy suffered

and could not meet the new demands. Prices rose and with them the costs of manufacturing cloth and other goods. As a result, Spanish products could not compete in the international market with cheaper products made elsewhere." With all the precious metals coming in from the New World, the prices went up and Spain could not keep pace with inflation (McKay, 511-12). This inflation hurt Spain's economy and the overall European economy, particularly the monarchies, the upper classes and the peasantry. But the middle class prospered out of the inflation. When people began to move to the colonies, the economic situation in Spain and Europe began to improve. "The rapidly growing and increasingly wealthy agricultural populations of the mainland colonies provided an expanding market for English [European] manufactured goods" (McKay, 651). When Spain and the other European natives began to capitalize on their New World opportunities, they did not immediately take the right action. It took a while to sort things out, but in the end the discovery of the New World helped open new markets and boost foreign trade. The increased trade with the New World,

"...enabled Europe to accumulate wealth and power previously unimaginable, the means by which it created and developed the most successful synergy systems ever known, a mixture of humanism and secularism, rationalism and science, materialism and capitalism, nationalism and militarism - in short, the very structures of what we know as modern civilization" (Sale, 186).

Modern civilization is not all bad. Yes, there are bad aspects of the world economy today. Overall, in the long run the impact of the discovery of the New World was a positive one. Another form of trade that prospered