The start of the European Colonization is typically dated to 1492, although there was at least one earlier colonization effort. The first known Europeans to reach the Americas are believed to have been the Vikings (\"Norse\") during the eleventh century, who established several colonies in Greenland and one short-lived settlement at L\'Anse aux Meadows in the area the Norse called Vinland, present day Newfoundland. Settlements in Greenland survived for several centuries, during which time the Greenland Norse and theInuit people experienced mostly hostile contact. By the end of the fifteenth century, the Norse Greenland settlements had collapsed. In 1492, a Spanish expedition headed by Christopher Columbus reached the Americas, after which European exploration and colonization rapidly expanded, first through much of the Caribbean region (including the islands of Hispaniola,Puerto Rico, and Cuba) and, early in the sixteenth century, parts of the mainlands of North and South America. Eventually, the entire Western Hemisphere would come under the domination of European nations, leading to profound changes to its landscape, population, and plant and animal life. In the nineteenth century alone over 50 million people left Europe for the Americas. The post-1492 era is known as the period of the Columbian Exchange. The potato, the pineapple, theturkey, dahlias, sunflowers, magnolias, maize, chilies, and chocolate went East across theAtlantic Ocean. Smallpox and measles but also the horse and the gun traveled West. The flow of benefit appears to have been one-sided, with Europe gaining more. However, the colonization and exploration of the Americas also transformed the world, eventually adding 31 newnation-states to the global community. On the one hand, the cultural and religious arrogance that led settlers to deny anything of value in pre-Columbian America was destructive, even genocidal. On the other hand, many of those who settled in the New World were also social and political visionaries, who found opportunities there, on what for them was a tabula rasa, to aim at achieving their highest ideals of justice, equality, and freedom. Some of the world\'s most stable democraciesexist as a result of this transformative process. The first conquests were made by the Spanish and the Portuguese. In the 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas, ratified by the Pope, these two kingdoms divided the entire non-European world between themselves, with a line drawn through South America. Based on this Treaty, and the claims by Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa to all lands touching the Pacific Ocean, the Spanish rapidly conquered territory, overthrowing the Aztec and Inca Empires to gain control of much of western South America, Central America, and Mexico by the mid-sixteenth century, in addition to its earlier Caribbean conquests. Over this same time frame, Portugalconquered much of eastern South America, naming it Brazil. Early conquests, claims, and colonies Other Eur.

1. The start of the European Colonization is typically dated to 1492, although there was at least one
earlier colonization effort. The first known Europeans to reach the Americas are believed to have
been the Vikings ("Norse") during the eleventh century, who established several colonies in
Greenland and one short-lived settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows in the area the Norse called
Vinland, present day Newfoundland. Settlements in Greenland survived for several centuries,
during which time the Greenland Norse and theInuit people experienced mostly hostile contact.
By the end of the fifteenth century, the Norse Greenland settlements had collapsed. In 1492, a
Spanish expedition headed by Christopher Columbus reached the Americas, after which
European exploration and colonization rapidly expanded, first through much of the Caribbean
region (including the islands of Hispaniola,Puerto Rico, and Cuba) and, early in the sixteenth
century, parts of the mainlands of North and South America.
Eventually, the entire Western Hemisphere would come under the domination of European
nations, leading to profound changes to its landscape, population, and plant and animal life. In
the nineteenth century alone over 50 million people left Europe for the Americas. The post-1492
era is known as the period of the Columbian Exchange. The potato, the pineapple, theturkey,
dahlias, sunflowers, magnolias, maize, chilies, and chocolate went East across theAtlantic
Ocean. Smallpox and measles but also the horse and the gun traveled West.
The flow of benefit appears to have been one-sided, with Europe gaining more. However, the
colonization and exploration of the Americas also transformed the world, eventually adding 31
newnation-states to the global community. On the one hand, the cultural and religious arrogance
that led settlers to deny anything of value in pre-Columbian America was destructive, even
genocidal. On the other hand, many of those who settled in the New World were also social and
political visionaries, who found opportunities there, on what for them was a tabula rasa, to aim at
achieving their highest ideals of justice, equality, and freedom. Some of the world's most stable
democraciesexist as a result of this transformative process.
The first conquests were made by the Spanish and the Portuguese. In the 1494 Treaty of
Tordesillas, ratified by the Pope, these two kingdoms divided the entire non-European world
between themselves, with a line drawn through South America. Based on this Treaty, and the
claims by Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa to all lands touching the Pacific Ocean, the
Spanish rapidly conquered territory, overthrowing the Aztec and Inca Empires to gain control of
much of western South America, Central America, and Mexico by the mid-sixteenth century, in
addition to its earlier Caribbean conquests. Over this same time frame, Portugalconquered much
of eastern South America, naming it Brazil.
Early conquests, claims, and colonies
Other European nations soon disputed the terms of the Treaty of Tordesillas, which they had not

2. negotiated. England and France attempted to plant colonies in the Americas in the sixteenth
century, but these met with failure. However, in the following century, the two kingdoms, along
with the Netherlands, succeeded in establishing permanent colonies. Some of these were on
Caribbean islands, which had often already been conquered by the Spanish or depopulated by
disease, while others were in eastern North America, which had not been colonized by Spain
north of Florida.
Economic immigrants
Many immigrants to the American colonies came for economic reasons.[14] Inspired by the
Spanish riches from colonies founded upon the conquest of the Aztecs, Incas, and other large
Native American populations in the sixteenth century, the first Englishmen to settle in America
hoped for some of the same rich discoveries when they first established a settlement in
Jamestown, Virginia. They were sponsored by common stock companies such as the chartered
Virginia Company (and its offshoot, the Somers Isles Company) financed by wealthy
Englishmen who understood the economic potential of this new land. The main purpose of this
colony was the hope of findinggold or the possibility (or impossibility) of finding a passage
through the Americas to the Indies. It took strong leaders, like John Smith, to convince the
colonists of Jamestown that searching for gold was not taking care of their immediate needs for
food and shelter and that "he who shall not work shall not eat" (A direction based on text from
the New Testament). The extremely high mortality rate was quite distressing and cause for
despair among the colonists. Tobacco quickly became a cash crop for export and the sustaining
economic driver of Virginia and nearby colonies like Maryland.
From the beginning of Virginia's settlements in 1587 until the 1680s, the main source of labor
and a large portion of the immigrants were indentured servants looking for new life in the
overseas colonies. During the seventeenth century, indentured servants constituted three-quarters
of all European immigrants to the Chesapeake region. Most of the indentured servants were
English farmers who had been pushed off their lands due to the expansion of livestock raising,
the enclosure of land, and overcrowding in the countryside. This unfortunate turn of events
served as a push for thousands of people (mostly single men) away from their situation in
England. There was hope, however, as American landowners were in need of laborers and were
willing to pay for a laborer’s passage to America if they served them for several years. By selling
passage for five to seven years worth of work they could hope to start out on their own in
America.
In the French colonial regions, the focus of economy was the fur trade with the Amerindians.
Farming was set up primarily to provide subsistence only, although cod and other fish of the
Grand Banks were a major export and source of income for the French and many other European
nations. The fur trade was also practiced by the Russians on the northwest coast of North

3. America. After the French and Indian War, the British were ceded all French possessions in
North America east of the Mississippi River, aside from the tiny islands ofSaint-Pierre and
Miquelon.
Economic immigrants
Many immigrants to the American colonies came for economic reasons.[14] Inspired by the
Spanish riches from colonies founded upon the conquest of the Aztecs, Incas, and other large
Native American populations in the sixteenth century, the first Englishmen to settle in America
hoped for some of the same rich discoveries when they first established a settlement in
Jamestown, Virginia. They were sponsored by common stock companies such as the chartered
Virginia Company (and its offshoot, the Somers Isles Company) financed by wealthy
Englishmen who understood the economic potential of this new land. The main purpose of this
colony was the hope of findinggold or the possibility (or impossibility) of finding a passage
through the Americas to the Indies. It took strong leaders, like John Smith, to convince the
colonists of Jamestown that searching for gold was not taking care of their immediate needs for
food and shelter and that "he who shall not work shall not eat" (A direction based on text from
the New Testament). The extremely high mortality rate was quite distressing and cause for
despair among the colonists. Tobacco quickly became a cash crop for export and the sustaining
economic driver of Virginia and nearby colonies like Maryland.
From the beginning of Virginia's settlements in 1587 until the 1680s, the main source of labor
and a large portion of the immigrants were indentured servants looking for new life in the
overseas colonies. During the seventeenth century, indentured servants constituted three-quarters
of all European immigrants to the Chesapeake region. Most of the indentured servants were
English farmers who had been pushed off their lands due to the expansion of livestock raising,
the enclosure of land, and overcrowding in the countryside. This unfortunate turn of events
served as a push for thousands of people (mostly single men) away from their situation in
England. There was hope, however, as American landowners were in need of laborers and were
willing to pay for a laborer’s passage to America if they served them for several years. By selling
passage for five to seven years worth of work they could hope to start out on their own in
America.
In the French colonial regions, the focus of economy was the fur trade with the Amerindians.
Farming was set up primarily to provide subsistence only, although cod and other fish of the
Grand Banks were a major export and source of income for the French and many other European
nations. The fur trade was also practiced by the Russians on the northwest coast of North
America. After the French and Indian War, the British were ceded all French possessions in
North America east of the Mississippi River, aside from the tiny islands ofSaint-Pierre and
Miquelon.

4. Religious immigration
Roman Catholics were the first major religious group to immigrate to the New World, as settlers
in the colonies of Portugal and Spain (and later, France) were required to belong to that faith.
English and Dutch colonies, on the other hand, tended to be more religiously diverse. Settlers to
these colonies included Anglicans, Dutch Calvinists, English Puritans, English Catholics,
Scottish Presbyterians, French Huguenots, German and Swedish Lutherans, as well as Quakers,
Mennonites, Amish, Moravians, and Jews of various nationalities.
Many groups of colonists came to the Americas searching for the right to practice their religion
without persecution. The Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century broke the unity of
Western European Christendom and led to the formation of numerous new religious sects, which
often faced persecution by governmental authorities. In England, many people came to question
the organization of the Church of England by the end of the sixteenth century. One of the
primary manifestations of this was the Puritan movement, which sought to "purify" the existing
Church of England of its many residual Catholic rites that they believed had no mention in the
Bible.
A strong believer in the notion of the Divine Right of Kings, England's Charles I persecuted
religious dissenters. Waves of repression led to the migration of about 20,000 Puritans to New
England between 1629 and 1642, where they founded multiple colonies. Later in the century, the
new Pennsylvania colony was given to William Penn in settlement of a debt the king owed his
father. Its government was set up by William Penn in about 1682 to become primarily a refuge
for persecuted English Quakers; but others were welcomed. Baptists, Quakers, and German and
Swiss Protestants flocked to Pennsylvania.
The lure of cheap land, religious freedom and the right to improve themselves with their own
hand was very attractive to those who wished to escape from persecution and poverty. In
America, all these groups gradually worked out a way to live together peacefully and
cooperatively in the roughly 150 years preceding the American Revolution.
Many of these settlers had almost utopian visions of constructing a better world. They hoped that
at least some of the mistakes of the Old World could be left behind. For the citizens of what
became the United States, throwing off colonial governance was an opportunity to start again, to
create a society based on human rights, freedom, and justice.
Power becomes the primary factor that led to the exploration and colonization of the New World.
This power exerted itself in social, economic, and political shifts of thought. Nations in Europe
began to recognize that the presence of colonies in the New World enabled it to possess more
power, enabling them to grow and challenge other nations for power. The desire to accumulate
helped to form the primary change in thought that allowed for exploration and colonization of
the New World.

5. The emergence of the European nation state became one of the primary reasons why exploration
and colonization of the New World took place. Nations began to grow as a source of power. For
example, Spain began to recognize that its own power could grow on the continent with the
emergence of colonies. Being able to explore new territories and gain riches from these lands
could translate into substantiation of their own nation. The growth of the Spanish armada, or
navy, enabled Spain to control the seas around Europe. However, it was becoming evident as
England developed its own formidable naval fleet that a new horizon of power was needed.
Politically, nations like Spain, England, and France understood that in order to bolster their own
strength on the continent, there would have to be an influx of capital and resources apart from it.
European nations had emerged on the continent and recognized that the only way to effectively
challenge one another was to generate wealth and accumulate materials from abroad. European
absolutism became the political approach of the day. Nations were not necessarily interested in
coexisting, as much as establishing and growing their own power base which could be parlayed
into challenging other nations' base of power. It was this mode of thought that triggered the
exploration and colonization of the New World. Nations were able to explore and colonize the
New World and generate money, profit, and strength for their own nation.This becomes one of
the dominant themes that explains both the exploration and colonization of the New World and
the exploitation and domination of indigenous people that represents one of its legacies.
From an economic point of view, mercantilism becomes the accepted philosophical approach
that justified the exploration and colonization of the New World. Mercantilism was an economic
point of view that placed colonies at the center of a nation's importance. Mercantilism asserted
that the more precious metals and resources a nation owned, the wider a nation's wealth and
power base could be expanded. Economically, nations that embraced mercantilism felt the need
to increase colonization through exploration of the New World. With its emphasis on
government control of the economy, mercantilism became the economic form of national
absolutism. The political emergence of the nation- state was intellectually fortified by a
mercantilist system that placed the nation- state as the primary broker of economic affairs. The
consolidation of power that was sought in mercantilism made it necessary to explore and
colonize the New World. The natural and human resources found in the New World became
immediately appropriated by European governments in their attempts to increase power. Given
the emphasis on Mercantilist philosophy, nations in Europe recognized that if they did not find
and control colonies in the New World, their competitors would. The need to economically
consolidate control over a nation's affairs helped to justify and expand colonization of the New
World.
From a social standpoint, colonization and exploration were seen as means to increase European
spirituality. For example, Spanish colonization involved the proselytization of indigenous

6. people. A significant portion of Spanish exploration was rooted in this idea. In May 1493, Pope
Alexander VI requested that conversion accompany colonization. As a result, when Columbus
returns to the New World, Benedictine Friars accompany him. In England, a part of the
Separatist movement was the Pilgrims and their desire to find a religious haven helped them
facilitate their entry into the New World. The social force of religion helped play a significant
role in the colonization and exploration of the New World. The social timbre of nations in
Europe was more "other- directed," no longer being content with life within their own sphere of
influence. The desire to seek new horizons and conquer them became a part of the European
social understanding, one that helped to facilitate colonization of the New World.
Solution
The start of the European Colonization is typically dated to 1492, although there was at least one
earlier colonization effort. The first known Europeans to reach the Americas are believed to have
been the Vikings ("Norse") during the eleventh century, who established several colonies in
Greenland and one short-lived settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows in the area the Norse called
Vinland, present day Newfoundland. Settlements in Greenland survived for several centuries,
during which time the Greenland Norse and theInuit people experienced mostly hostile contact.
By the end of the fifteenth century, the Norse Greenland settlements had collapsed. In 1492, a
Spanish expedition headed by Christopher Columbus reached the Americas, after which
European exploration and colonization rapidly expanded, first through much of the Caribbean
region (including the islands of Hispaniola,Puerto Rico, and Cuba) and, early in the sixteenth
century, parts of the mainlands of North and South America.
Eventually, the entire Western Hemisphere would come under the domination of European
nations, leading to profound changes to its landscape, population, and plant and animal life. In
the nineteenth century alone over 50 million people left Europe for the Americas. The post-1492
era is known as the period of the Columbian Exchange. The potato, the pineapple, theturkey,
dahlias, sunflowers, magnolias, maize, chilies, and chocolate went East across theAtlantic
Ocean. Smallpox and measles but also the horse and the gun traveled West.
The flow of benefit appears to have been one-sided, with Europe gaining more. However, the
colonization and exploration of the Americas also transformed the world, eventually adding 31
newnation-states to the global community. On the one hand, the cultural and religious arrogance
that led settlers to deny anything of value in pre-Columbian America was destructive, even
genocidal. On the other hand, many of those who settled in the New World were also social and
political visionaries, who found opportunities there, on what for them was a tabula rasa, to aim at
achieving their highest ideals of justice, equality, and freedom. Some of the world's most stable

7. democraciesexist as a result of this transformative process.
The first conquests were made by the Spanish and the Portuguese. In the 1494 Treaty of
Tordesillas, ratified by the Pope, these two kingdoms divided the entire non-European world
between themselves, with a line drawn through South America. Based on this Treaty, and the
claims by Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa to all lands touching the Pacific Ocean, the
Spanish rapidly conquered territory, overthrowing the Aztec and Inca Empires to gain control of
much of western South America, Central America, and Mexico by the mid-sixteenth century, in
addition to its earlier Caribbean conquests. Over this same time frame, Portugalconquered much
of eastern South America, naming it Brazil.
Early conquests, claims, and colonies
Other European nations soon disputed the terms of the Treaty of Tordesillas, which they had not
negotiated. England and France attempted to plant colonies in the Americas in the sixteenth
century, but these met with failure. However, in the following century, the two kingdoms, along
with the Netherlands, succeeded in establishing permanent colonies. Some of these were on
Caribbean islands, which had often already been conquered by the Spanish or depopulated by
disease, while others were in eastern North America, which had not been colonized by Spain
north of Florida.
Economic immigrants
Many immigrants to the American colonies came for economic reasons.[14] Inspired by the
Spanish riches from colonies founded upon the conquest of the Aztecs, Incas, and other large
Native American populations in the sixteenth century, the first Englishmen to settle in America
hoped for some of the same rich discoveries when they first established a settlement in
Jamestown, Virginia. They were sponsored by common stock companies such as the chartered
Virginia Company (and its offshoot, the Somers Isles Company) financed by wealthy
Englishmen who understood the economic potential of this new land. The main purpose of this
colony was the hope of findinggold or the possibility (or impossibility) of finding a passage
through the Americas to the Indies. It took strong leaders, like John Smith, to convince the
colonists of Jamestown that searching for gold was not taking care of their immediate needs for
food and shelter and that "he who shall not work shall not eat" (A direction based on text from
the New Testament). The extremely high mortality rate was quite distressing and cause for
despair among the colonists. Tobacco quickly became a cash crop for export and the sustaining
economic driver of Virginia and nearby colonies like Maryland.
From the beginning of Virginia's settlements in 1587 until the 1680s, the main source of labor
and a large portion of the immigrants were indentured servants looking for new life in the
overseas colonies. During the seventeenth century, indentured servants constituted three-quarters
of all European immigrants to the Chesapeake region. Most of the indentured servants were

8. English farmers who had been pushed off their lands due to the expansion of livestock raising,
the enclosure of land, and overcrowding in the countryside. This unfortunate turn of events
served as a push for thousands of people (mostly single men) away from their situation in
England. There was hope, however, as American landowners were in need of laborers and were
willing to pay for a laborer’s passage to America if they served them for several years. By selling
passage for five to seven years worth of work they could hope to start out on their own in
America.
In the French colonial regions, the focus of economy was the fur trade with the Amerindians.
Farming was set up primarily to provide subsistence only, although cod and other fish of the
Grand Banks were a major export and source of income for the French and many other European
nations. The fur trade was also practiced by the Russians on the northwest coast of North
America. After the French and Indian War, the British were ceded all French possessions in
North America east of the Mississippi River, aside from the tiny islands ofSaint-Pierre and
Miquelon.
Economic immigrants
Many immigrants to the American colonies came for economic reasons.[14] Inspired by the
Spanish riches from colonies founded upon the conquest of the Aztecs, Incas, and other large
Native American populations in the sixteenth century, the first Englishmen to settle in America
hoped for some of the same rich discoveries when they first established a settlement in
Jamestown, Virginia. They were sponsored by common stock companies such as the chartered
Virginia Company (and its offshoot, the Somers Isles Company) financed by wealthy
Englishmen who understood the economic potential of this new land. The main purpose of this
colony was the hope of findinggold or the possibility (or impossibility) of finding a passage
through the Americas to the Indies. It took strong leaders, like John Smith, to convince the
colonists of Jamestown that searching for gold was not taking care of their immediate needs for
food and shelter and that "he who shall not work shall not eat" (A direction based on text from
the New Testament). The extremely high mortality rate was quite distressing and cause for
despair among the colonists. Tobacco quickly became a cash crop for export and the sustaining
economic driver of Virginia and nearby colonies like Maryland.
From the beginning of Virginia's settlements in 1587 until the 1680s, the main source of labor
and a large portion of the immigrants were indentured servants looking for new life in the
overseas colonies. During the seventeenth century, indentured servants constituted three-quarters
of all European immigrants to the Chesapeake region. Most of the indentured servants were
English farmers who had been pushed off their lands due to the expansion of livestock raising,
the enclosure of land, and overcrowding in the countryside. This unfortunate turn of events
served as a push for thousands of people (mostly single men) away from their situation in

9. England. There was hope, however, as American landowners were in need of laborers and were
willing to pay for a laborer’s passage to America if they served them for several years. By selling
passage for five to seven years worth of work they could hope to start out on their own in
America.
In the French colonial regions, the focus of economy was the fur trade with the Amerindians.
Farming was set up primarily to provide subsistence only, although cod and other fish of the
Grand Banks were a major export and source of income for the French and many other European
nations. The fur trade was also practiced by the Russians on the northwest coast of North
America. After the French and Indian War, the British were ceded all French possessions in
North America east of the Mississippi River, aside from the tiny islands ofSaint-Pierre and
Miquelon.
Religious immigration
Roman Catholics were the first major religious group to immigrate to the New World, as settlers
in the colonies of Portugal and Spain (and later, France) were required to belong to that faith.
English and Dutch colonies, on the other hand, tended to be more religiously diverse. Settlers to
these colonies included Anglicans, Dutch Calvinists, English Puritans, English Catholics,
Scottish Presbyterians, French Huguenots, German and Swedish Lutherans, as well as Quakers,
Mennonites, Amish, Moravians, and Jews of various nationalities.
Many groups of colonists came to the Americas searching for the right to practice their religion
without persecution. The Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century broke the unity of
Western European Christendom and led to the formation of numerous new religious sects, which
often faced persecution by governmental authorities. In England, many people came to question
the organization of the Church of England by the end of the sixteenth century. One of the
primary manifestations of this was the Puritan movement, which sought to "purify" the existing
Church of England of its many residual Catholic rites that they believed had no mention in the
Bible.
A strong believer in the notion of the Divine Right of Kings, England's Charles I persecuted
religious dissenters. Waves of repression led to the migration of about 20,000 Puritans to New
England between 1629 and 1642, where they founded multiple colonies. Later in the century, the
new Pennsylvania colony was given to William Penn in settlement of a debt the king owed his
father. Its government was set up by William Penn in about 1682 to become primarily a refuge
for persecuted English Quakers; but others were welcomed. Baptists, Quakers, and German and
Swiss Protestants flocked to Pennsylvania.
The lure of cheap land, religious freedom and the right to improve themselves with their own
hand was very attractive to those who wished to escape from persecution and poverty. In
America, all these groups gradually worked out a way to live together peacefully and

10. cooperatively in the roughly 150 years preceding the American Revolution.
Many of these settlers had almost utopian visions of constructing a better world. They hoped that
at least some of the mistakes of the Old World could be left behind. For the citizens of what
became the United States, throwing off colonial governance was an opportunity to start again, to
create a society based on human rights, freedom, and justice.
Power becomes the primary factor that led to the exploration and colonization of the New World.
This power exerted itself in social, economic, and political shifts of thought. Nations in Europe
began to recognize that the presence of colonies in the New World enabled it to possess more
power, enabling them to grow and challenge other nations for power. The desire to accumulate
helped to form the primary change in thought that allowed for exploration and colonization of
the New World.
The emergence of the European nation state became one of the primary reasons why exploration
and colonization of the New World took place. Nations began to grow as a source of power. For
example, Spain began to recognize that its own power could grow on the continent with the
emergence of colonies. Being able to explore new territories and gain riches from these lands
could translate into substantiation of their own nation. The growth of the Spanish armada, or
navy, enabled Spain to control the seas around Europe. However, it was becoming evident as
England developed its own formidable naval fleet that a new horizon of power was needed.
Politically, nations like Spain, England, and France understood that in order to bolster their own
strength on the continent, there would have to be an influx of capital and resources apart from it.
European nations had emerged on the continent and recognized that the only way to effectively
challenge one another was to generate wealth and accumulate materials from abroad. European
absolutism became the political approach of the day. Nations were not necessarily interested in
coexisting, as much as establishing and growing their own power base which could be parlayed
into challenging other nations' base of power. It was this mode of thought that triggered the
exploration and colonization of the New World. Nations were able to explore and colonize the
New World and generate money, profit, and strength for their own nation.This becomes one of
the dominant themes that explains both the exploration and colonization of the New World and
the exploitation and domination of indigenous people that represents one of its legacies.
From an economic point of view, mercantilism becomes the accepted philosophical approach
that justified the exploration and colonization of the New World. Mercantilism was an economic
point of view that placed colonies at the center of a nation's importance. Mercantilism asserted
that the more precious metals and resources a nation owned, the wider a nation's wealth and
power base could be expanded. Economically, nations that embraced mercantilism felt the need
to increase colonization through exploration of the New World. With its emphasis on
government control of the economy, mercantilism became the economic form of national

11. absolutism. The political emergence of the nation- state was intellectually fortified by a
mercantilist system that placed the nation- state as the primary broker of economic affairs. The
consolidation of power that was sought in mercantilism made it necessary to explore and
colonize the New World. The natural and human resources found in the New World became
immediately appropriated by European governments in their attempts to increase power. Given
the emphasis on Mercantilist philosophy, nations in Europe recognized that if they did not find
and control colonies in the New World, their competitors would. The need to economically
consolidate control over a nation's affairs helped to justify and expand colonization of the New
World.
From a social standpoint, colonization and exploration were seen as means to increase European
spirituality. For example, Spanish colonization involved the proselytization of indigenous
people. A significant portion of Spanish exploration was rooted in this idea. In May 1493, Pope
Alexander VI requested that conversion accompany colonization. As a result, when Columbus
returns to the New World, Benedictine Friars accompany him. In England, a part of the
Separatist movement was the Pilgrims and their desire to find a religious haven helped them
facilitate their entry into the New World. The social force of religion helped play a significant
role in the colonization and exploration of the New World. The social timbre of nations in
Europe was more "other- directed," no longer being content with life within their own sphere of
influence. The desire to seek new horizons and conquer them became a part of the European
social understanding, one that helped to facilitate colonization of the New World.