Historical Essay (Age of Exploration)
By: Paige Yamate
P.7

Many people know of Christopher Columbus, a famous Spanish explorer who said to have discovered North America, but what many people fail to realize is that he was not the first to uncover the “new world,” another name for the Western Hemisphere, in fact, there were hundreds of explorers doing just that. This era of unprecedented European Exploration is known as, The Age of Exploration. The Age of Exploration started in the 1400’s, and the motive for the sudden venture is search for new trade routes, wealth, adventure, and a way to spread Christianity and the word of God. Inventions and Technological advancement, such as cartography (the practice of map drawing), astrolabe (a navigation system bearing latitude and longitude), and stronger ships with cartels for faster travel, also played an important role in this era. Many Europeans discovered many new cultures and lands and pushed their own religion and culture onto them, resulting in the disappearance of some societies. However, this is not a bad thing, cultures, such as the Hawaiian culture that was thankfully converted to Christianity, drowned newborns that showed any peculiar defects when birthed. The Age of Exploration had a positive effect on the New Worlds and Europe because both societies gained new goods, proper medicine was discovered, and Europe civilized the New World.
The Age of Exploration was positive because both societies gained new animals, crops, and technologies. They gained such utilities by trading with one another. The most popular trade route was the route that involved North America and Europe formally known as, The Columbian Trade Route. “When Europeans first touched the shores of the Americas, Old World crops such as wheat, barley, rice, and turnips had not traveled west across the Atlantic, and New World crops such as maize,