Motives_for_Empires

asdfghjkl AP US 8/10/09 Motives for an Empire In the Age of Exploration there was great motivation to explore and wander and discover new things. This motivation comes from other nations growing jealous as others become wealthy and rich. Spain would lead the way and push the Netherlands, France, and England to follow in their footsteps of further developing their country. They all had the same outlook to expand their nation and make themselves wealthy in the process. Each country had a different approach on exploiting the newly found colonial treasures and in time it would determine its own success or failure. There were many motivations in Spain that came from the struggle of starting an empire with colonies all over the world. They were an eager population to conquer new lands, monopolize the spice trades from Asia, become a wealthy nation, and spread their religious beliefs of the Catholic Church. They wanted God, Gold, and Glory for their nation and the only to reach that goal was exploration and exploitation of America. The Spanish destroyed and wreaked havoc with their European weapons and diseases that they brought. They destroyed the empires in South America and took control parts of North America. They soon had a firm grasp of the land in South America and a section by California and Florida. Many natives scared for their life submitted to converting to Christianity and once converted they had to work in gold mines and plantations for the Spanish. This gold influx to Spain would help them plenty in increasing their wealth. This had poor working conditions and led to death along with the many diseases that the Spanish brought over. This large-scale death led to the Spanish to rely on a different source of labor and thus the African slave trade was born. All the newfound success the Spanish have would stir their neighbors into wanting a piece of the action. Seeing success in the Spanish economy from conquering America, the Dutch soon became envious and would soon follow them. They first started to develop the Eastern front of America and soon set up ports all over the northeastern part of America. They took control of the fur trade with the Dutch East India Company and profited greatly in their risky venture. The Dutch took a risky chance and struck a great deal. The Dutch did not force Protestantism on the natives. And they also did not try to conquer land like Spain but instead set up posts all over to profit greatly. There most prized possession was New Amsterdam, which was later renamed New York.