Essay - Not Unlike the Way the 'Race for the Moon' Became...

Not unlike the way the 'race for the moon' became ***** driving force of American scientific exploration during the 1950's and 1960's, the race to control the trade routes to the far reaches of the globe and ***** expand its technological knowledge of navigation ***** the driving force of Spanish foreign and domestic policy ***** ***** period of world history from the 15th to the 17th centuries. This period is also commonly called "The Age ***** Discovery" by European his*****rians. ***** economic impact of Spain's forays into the New World or worlds ultimately changed the face ***** European ***** of the world and the economic structure of Europe. Both ***** residents of Spain and ***** as a whole, however, experienced both positive and negative effects ***** this exploration. However, the effects upon Europe were on ***** ***** largely beneficial, because of the incre*****ed exposure to new goods and the expansion of technology ***** knowledge that came as a result of coloniz*****tion and exploration. However, the impact ***** the existing inhabitants ***** the New ***** was ***** *****.

***** Age of Discovery began, not in Spain, but in Spain's sister state of Portugal.

Henry ***** Navigator, Prince of Portugal, initiated the first great enterprise of ***** Age ***** Discovery, the search for a se***** route east by south to Cathay. The three marks of the briefly Portuguese Empire were *****, anti-Islamism, and the Christian religion. The Portuguese believed treaty need be kept with an infidel, and had a tendency to cruelty *****yond ***** normal limits of even contemporary expectations of humane and moral behavior. However, the Portuguese must be credited ***** their discovery Cape of Good Hope, one of the roughest seas, ***** key in cross*****g for trade, as well ***** their technological advances in navigation and seafar*****g.

***** Portugal was soon over-extended. Empire building in the East did not bring Portugal's crown as much profit as had *****en anticipated. The ***** seamen increasingly became private merchants, lining own pockets ra*****r than the royal treasury. ***** Eastern footholds ***** expensive ***** a small country like Portugal to maintain. It ***** therefore the Spanish in the long run reaped ***** harvest of Portuguese enterprise, ***** after Portugal claimed Ceylon, the East Indies ***** Spice Islands. (American ***** Trade Organization—The ***** of Discovery)

Spain reaped ***** benefits of Portuguese navigational instruments, mathematics, and ***** and ultimately used ***** explorers ***** the knowledge gained from the Portuguese endeavors to enrich *****ir own nation. (The Age of *****) *****, it was the Italian Christopher Columbus, in his conquest of the West *****, as well as Magellan, who solidified ***** control over the New World. Although often mocked for ***** failure to understand that he had not circumnavigated the *****, after his exploratory mission, Spain developed an enormous empire in the ***** World, follow*****g *****' arrival in the Americ***** in 1492. Gold and silver came flooding into Spanish coffers from Mexico and Peru as ***** conquistadors claimed l***** ***** Cuba to Bolivia. Spain monopolized trade with