Essay Help! European Colonization

[Prince of the Poodles]

Hey,

I have a huge essay test coming up which will consist of one question. "Why was Columbus a European".

Essentially, the proffessor wants us to describe why Europe was at the forefront of overseas expansion and why the Muslim and Asian empires were not.

I took awesome notes and had it all layed out, but unfortunately they were stolen out of my car along with all my books last weekend.

So i have recalled all I can from memory, but I was wondering if anyone could add anything else. Thanks for any help!

Heres what ive got:

Muslim World:

1. already on the trade routs
2. somewhat geographically blocked from the major oceans
3. already expanding into europe(turks) and africa

Asian World:

1. Considered itself superior to rest of the world(instructors view, not mine)
2. no desire to elimenate the muslim middleman in trade
3. attempted at one time to explore, but mysteriously stopped

European World:

1. Economics - open direct trade with asia
2. spread of religion
3. desire to expand
4. more competition among nations than in the other spheres
5. enlightened outlook on the world

Africa and Pre European America:

Not technically advanced enough


If anybody could add to these lists, or sees anything im clearly leaving out, it would be a great help to me. Thanks so much!

[The Wizard]

Add in the fact that the Muslim world already had the Silk Road, and in general pretty strong connections with the Far East were long established. Meanwhile, the Chinese and other Far Easterners were far more concerned with their particular localities ("cooked barbarians" over "raw" ones, and all that good stuff), and as such weren't very interested in bypassing the Middle Eastern trade hub (and weren't very interested in anything outside of the Middle Kingdom and environs in the first place).

That, opposed to the lack of such ideas in Europe; the Europeans were also very interested in bypassing the Middle East, which was largely controlled by a powerful and aggressive enemy of theirs: the Ottomans.

[TinCow]

The question you're asking as essentially what Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel deals with. I would highly recommend at reading, or at least skimming, this book before you start writing.

[Avicenna]

The Chinese Emperor has a mandate of heaven, which means he is ruler of all he views. He has no need to conquer the world. Tribute will do, thank you very much.

[Veho Nex]

Well French dutch and british had better navies while the asians prefered junks which cant go very far. muslim word wanted to stay in the so called
"holly land". I think columbus was from spain and that he was looking for a safer route to "india" but some say he wasn't. English needed more colonies because they were running out of room in tiny ass britain. Well i think after a while the muslims came over here but my memory on this stuff isn't very good so this is about as much as i have Gl with your test.

[KARTLOS]

have a look at the book 1421. it has been proposed that the chinese fleet of zheng hi did discover america as well.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zheng_He

it doesnt really matter who got there first i guess as what really matters is what you did about it.

[KrooK]

Not at all - your professor seems not to see muslims here.
Muslims colonised Indonesia and conquered India. They did not colosided America or China because they didn't have to. They simply had best trade sources or they controlled only way to deliver them. :)


And Columbus wasn't from Spain. He was from Italy.

[Randarkmaan]

Not at all - your professor seems not to see muslims here.
Muslims colonised Indonesia and conquered India. They did not colosided America or China because they didn't have to. They simply had best trade sources or they controlled only way to deliver them. :)

They also converted large parts of Africa. Anyway I don't think that the Muslims didn't need to colonize/discover America, they simply weren't in position to do so, and they did not know a route there I think. If you just sail without knowing what you're doing and where you're going you won't find anything. Columbus believed the earth was round and believed he could get to India by sailing west, problem was a continent sort of blocked his way, but he did believe he had found India I think.

[The Wizard]

They also converted large parts of Africa. Anyway I don't think that the Muslims didn't need to colonize/discover America, they simply weren't in position to do so, and they did not know a route there I think. If you just sail without knowing what you're doing and where you're going you won't find anything. Columbus believed the earth was round and believed he could get to India by sailing west, problem was a continent sort of blocked his way, but he did believe he had found India I think.

Actually, the Kurds had reached Tanzania by the 2nd century AD.

India was a hodgepodge of states and cultures unlikely to carry such a notion of superiority around.

Indian navigators are suspected of having reached China long, long before the birth of Christ, and spread their culture quite extensively throughout Southeast Asia and the Malay archipelago.

[Randarkmaan]

The Indians (of India that is) had as said above traded with china for a long time, later they traded chinese goods with the Romans either by buying them directly from the chinese or through South-East Asian merchants in India.

Also Oman in later centuries had some African colonies. And the Arab conquest of Maghreb can be considered colonization since many Arabs settled there and became overlords, though in the 9th century most North African states came to be ruled by Berber dynasties, still the Arab colonisation (if you may call it that) had a profound cultural and linguistic effect on the Maghreb. In African countries further south many Arabs set up trading colonies from which they also spread Islam and many of these were highly educated and valued as advisors and admnistrators in these African states.

Anyway, colonisation and exploration is not unique to Europe.

[The Wizard]

Also Oman in later centuries had some African colonies.

In fact, they controlled most of Eastern Africa right down to Mozambique. So did the Sassanids before them, as did, interestingly, the Parthians. The product of Kurdish navigational skill (why do you think Sindbad is a Kurdish name?).

[Veho Nex]

HEHEHE this jumps around so much inbetween on topic and off topic it's just extremely funny

[Veho Nex]

HEHEHE this jumps around so much inbetween on topic and off topic it's just extremely funny

Sorry for the double post how do i delete?

[Samurai Waki]

It has to be remembered that Columbus was a merchant by trade, and by knowing many languages he would have a leg-up in business. Its more probable that Columbus was Genoese considering that he consulted the Elector of Genoa First, because of his national sentiment against Venezia he would have wanted his own government to have a quicker more viable trade to India and China. Unfortunately, Genoa didn't want much to do with his idea, as the small Republic had interests for their ships elsewhere in the Mediterranean. Then Columbus went to Portugal, and asked the King for ships to cross the Atlantic, but Portugal was already headlong in Colonisation, particularly in Africa and India, and they thought it would be an ill investment to pay the fee for several ships to cross an infinite body of water (in their minds). Finally, Columbus was able to strike a deal with Spain, who after finally pushing the Moors out of Iberia, were not in great need of Transport Galleys... or Caravels. Isabella took a gamble with Columbus, if he was successful, to her mind then Spain would have a dominance in Global Monopolies, if unsuccessful, the short term damage was that Spain was out three ships, and quite a bit of money... the long term is left to speculation, but its pretty easy to say, that Spain wouldn't be getting any Boost in Gold Dubloons. But we all know Columbus was correct, and the rest is history...

Going back to my first point, If Columbus wrote his log in Spanish or Catalan, perhaps he did it because he wanted Merchants back in Spain to be able to read it legably without having to know much Italian.

[AntiochusIII]

Indian navigators are suspected of having reached China long, long before the birth of Christ, and spread their culture quite extensively throughout Southeast Asia and the Malay archipelago.

What I meant by that statement was that the point presented in Prince of the Poodles' first post -- the view of superiority among themselves prevented intent of colonization -- which he attributed to his professor, appeared to refer to China alone (and perhaps Japan), and not Asia in general.

The ancient Indians were indeed extremely active merchants of their day. Their extensive cultural influence could easily be seen throughout the entirety of Southeast Asia, among other places. The Khmer Empire is probably the most famous example of Indian cultural influence being so deep among the populace, aside from, of course, Buddhism and Hinduism.

[Laman]

One reason, look at a world map (or better a globe) while considering those that had the abilities. Muslim World, India and others in the middle doesn't really have easy access to the New World. Now China/East Asia vs Europe, which sea is smaller, Atlantic or Pacific? Of course there are lot of islands in the pacific but they where not that interesting for the big Asian powers. And as for Africa, well no real naval powers in West Africa, and they where slightly less advanced then the others of the Old World.

[KARTLOS]

Not at all - your professor seems not to see muslims here.
Muslims colonised Indonesia and conquered India. They did not colosided America or China because they didn't have to. They simply had best trade sources or they controlled only way to deliver them. :)


And Columbus wasn't from Spain. He was from Italy.

they did not really colonise indonesia. their poisonous message was in the most part spread by trade, with the ruling dynasties remaining on the whole local in origin.

[Randarkmaan]

Do keep quiet about this anti-Islamic propaganda. This so-called "poisonous message" is no more poisonous than olives, some like them some don't.

[Sarmatian]

Hey,

I have a huge essay test coming up which will consist of one question. "Why was Columbus a European".

Essentially, the proffessor wants us to describe why Europe was at the forefront of overseas expansion and why the Muslim and Asian empires were not.

I took awesome notes and had it all layed out, but unfortunately they were stolen out of my car along with all my books last weekend.

So i have recalled all I can from memory, but I was wondering if anyone could add anything else. Thanks for any help!

Heres what ive got:

Muslim World:

1. already on the trade routs
2. somewhat geographically blocked from the major oceans
3. already expanding into europe(turks) and africa

Asian World:

1. Considered itself superior to rest of the world(instructors view, not mine)
2. no desire to elimenate the muslim middleman in trade
3. attempted at one time to explore, but mysteriously stopped

European World:

1. Economics - open direct trade with asia
2. spread of religion
3. desire to expand
4. more competition among nations than in the other spheres
5. enlightened outlook on the world

Africa and Pre European America:

Not technically advanced enough


If anybody could add to these lists, or sees anything im clearly leaving out, it would be a great help to me. Thanks so much!

I think your notes are pretty accurate but I would just add my two cents about european world, namely points 2 and 5.

2. I don't think that religion influenced great discoveries much. Muslims were just as zealous as christians, maybe even more so.

5. Enlightened look on the world would mean that europeans were interested in dicoveries because of science and culture. Unfortunately, that was not so. It was all about wealth and power. That is the main reason. Actually, all discoveries, from the ancient times to more recent past, were made for those reasons.

And I would add just one point. Major land routes were either closed or very dangerous to travel. Basically, europeans had no other choice but to seek alternative routes to the riches of Asia (India and China mainly)...

[TevashSzat]

Religion did partially encourage the funding of Columbus's expedition. The reconquista just finished right before he left and the the Spanish king Ferdinand and queen Isabella (i think, names might be wrong) were still relatively in a state of religious fervor. They wanted to convert everyone and tried to do so with the Muslims, but they weren't very successful. As a result, they tried to convert pagans and viewed the Indians as pagans thus wanted Columbus to get to India for both economic and religiou factors too.

[ajaxfetish]

I have a huge essay test coming up which will consist of one question. "Why was Columbus a European".

Well, of course the simple answer is, because his parents settled in Genoa. If they'd lived in Egypt Columbus would have been an African. If they'd been from China he'd have been an Asian. Etc.

Ajax

[Adrian II]

Heres what ive got:

European World:

1. Economics - open direct trade with asia
2. spread of religion
3. desire to expand
4. more competition among nations than in the other spheres
5. enlightened outlook on the world

Guns! You forgot guns, my friend. That, and superior European ship-building and navigation. When the Portuguese sent a second fleet to India under Cabral in 1500, they gave him instructions to avoid trouble and look for profit, but also to sink any fleet that sought to oppose him. And the fact of the matter is that he could sink any fleet that opposed him.

Of course underpinning the superior shipbuilding, navigation and weaponry was a developing mentality; a mix of curiosity, individualism, greed and escapism which was reinforced by the competition between European rulers and elites.