CONSEQUENCES OF VOYAGES OF EXPLORATION (15TH AND 16TH CENTURIES) - HISTORY - 2025

The consequences of the exploration trips from Spain to Latin America were numerous: the idea of ​​the Earth changed, cultures were mixed and new knowledge of navigation was acquired, among others.

On October 12, 1942, what by many has been considered the most important event in history occurred. That day Christopher Columbus arrived with his three caravels sent by the Catholic Monarchs of Spain to the island of Guanahani, in what is now the Bahamas.

Columbus landing. Dioscoro Puebla.

Without knowing it, at that time, there was the first contact of Europeans with the American Indians. The Spanish navigators, led by Columbus, made four voyages.

In the first, carried out in 1492, the ships, in addition to reaching Guanahani, passed through Cuba and the island of Hispaniola. On the second trip, made between 1493 and 1496, a colonizing process began in Hispaniola and other islands such as Puerto Rico and Jamaica were known.

The third voyage took place in 1498, in which Columbus's ships touched the mainland for the first time, in the Gulf of Paria in Venezuela. Because of the deals that Christopher Columbus had given to the Indians on Hispaniola, he was arrested and for the fourth trip, which took place between 1502 and 1504, he was prohibited from traveling to this island.

In this last expedition, Admiral Colón was able to visit the mainland Central American coast and spent a year in Jamaica. Upon his return to Spain, he received the news of the death of Queen Elizabeth, so his expeditions lost the support of the Crown. These trips had consequences that made the world of today.

However, Columbus was not the only explorer; Francisco Pizarro also highlighted with the conquest of Peru, Hernán Cortés in Mexico, Pedro de Valdivia in Chile, Alonso de Ojeda in Venezuela, among others.

Main consequences of exploration trips

1- Changes in the Spanish Empire

Spanish Empire, 18th century. A.cano.2

Columbus's estimate of the distance to the Indies was wrong; in fact, he continued searching on several trips for the route to Asia, although he could not find it.

The discovery of new lands by Columbus, Hernán Cortes, Francisco Pizarro, and others meant that the Spanish Empire greatly increased its lands and inhabitants. This enriched the conquerors, but also the Spanish crown.

2- Conception of the indigenous

The cultural clash that existed between the Spanish and the Taíno Indians who inhabited the northern Caribbean islands was exceptional. His very scant clothing, his rich sexual life and his stupidity, in the opinion of the Spaniards, denoted a huge cultural difference, in his favor.

Later, by many conquerors they were seen as beasts and not as men. That controversy reached the Vatican, which, through a papal bull issued by Paul III in 1537, declared the indigenous human beings.

3- Evangelization

On the conception of the indigenous as human beings or vulgar animals, depended the power or not to evangelize them. In the papal bull of 1537, it was established that the natives were not only capable of understanding the Catholic faith, but also wanted to receive it.

Many religious missionaries like Fray Bartolomé de las Casas believed in peaceful conquest, through the evangelization of its inhabitants.

4- Knowledge of American ecology

Different varieties of corn, cereal introduced in Europe from America. Source: Lameirasb via Wikimedia Commons

The American fauna and flora is radically different from the European, and even more so in this historical moment. The Spanish were surprised by the animals of the American islands and the exotic plants of the area.

After the voyages of exploration began the exchange of plants and animals between the New World and the Old World, changing the diet of both continents.

5-

Together with the end of the conception of the flat character of planet Earth, in 1513 Vasco Núñez de Balboa sighted the Pacific Ocean for the first time, which he called the South Sea. When the magnitude of the ocean and its connections were understood, Spain increased its naval power in that area.

6- slave trade

Representation of an indigenous slave. Source: ivan camacho medrano via Wikimedia Commons

The beginnings of slavery in America by the Spanish took place in the second voyage of Christopher Columbus, where part of the Taino Indians living in Hispaniola were enslaved.

After the recognition of the natives as human beings and with the consolidation of Spanish colonies on the continent, they began to buy black slaves from Africa.

7- miscegenation

The first Spanish exploration trips were made up of convicts and sailors. They were not a professional team, nor were they families intending to settle.

Those who arrived in the New World were mainly men, who, since there were no women in the expeditions, began to join the Indian women. Blacks would later be added to this miscegenation. This mixture forms the different skin colors that Latin Americans have today.

8- New trade map

Main trade routes of the Spanish Empire. Source: CarlosVdeHabsburgo via Wikimedia Commons

Before Columbus's voyages, trade was limited to that carried out in Europe, especially among the maritime republics located on the Italian Peninsula. After Marco Polo's trip and the Europeans' knowledge of western cultures, the Silk Road entered Europe.

With the discovery of America, a commercial exchange would begin, especially food, for more than three hundred centuries, in the famous race of the Indians, between Cádiz and Hispaniola.

9- Language

The indigenous languages ​​spoken in the American continent should exceed a thousand, but most of them were extinct. In addition to the Catholic religion, the Castilian language was the other great colonial imposition, which still persists today.

Colon, at first, expressed his concern about the impossibility of communicating with the indigenous people. In the colonizing process, Spanish became the only means of communication. The natives and later the blacks had to learn it.

10- Advances in n

Replica of a 16th century galleon. Source: Jose L. Marin via Wikimedia Commons

Sailing the Mediterranean Sea was not the same as sailing the entire Atlantic Ocean. Columbus was familiar with navigation techniques and had knowledge of its developments.

Although voyages of exploration had been made in Africa and Asia, trade with America developed steadily, forcing people to rapidly perfect the different navigation techniques. New types of boats, with more capacity and resistance, were developed to adapt to new needs.

Was the earth thought to be flat in the Middle Ages?

In the Middle Ages the Earth was thought to be flat, though only by the untrained or illiterate people. Educated, noble and knowledgeable people knew that it is round.

References

1. Crosby, A. (2003). The Columbian Exchange: Biological and Cultural Consequences of 1492. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing Group.
2. Crosby, A. and Nader, H. (1989). The Voyages of Columbus: A Turning Point in World History. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana Humanities Council.
3. López, A. (2015). Hermeneutics of the discovery of the New World. The controversy of Valladolid and the nature of the American Indian. Valenciana, 8 (15), 233-260. Recovered from scielo.org.mx.
4. Pastor, B. (1992). The Armature of Conquest: Spanish Accounts of the Discovery of America, 1492-1589. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press.
5. Phillpis A and Rahn, C. (1992). The Worlds of Christopher Columbus. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
6. Traboulay, D. (1994). Columbus and Las Casas: The Conquest and Christianization of America, 1492-1566. Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America.
7. Yépez, A. (2011). Universal history. Caracas: Larense.