AMERICAN HISTORY 4 AMERICAN HISTORY Authors note: Answer 1- Columbus embarked into the New World

Running head: AMERICAN HISTORY
AMERICAN HISTORY
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1AMERICAN HISTORY
Answer 1- The European colonization began in 1942, when the Spanish mission leaded by
Genoese explorer Christopher Columbus sailed into west to find a new trade route in the Far East
but unintentionally reached on a land which came to be known as the “New World”. On 5
December 1492, people were running around the northern part of Hispaniola, where initially the
Taino people had inhabited ever since the 7thy century and gradually the place became the first
European settlement in the Americas. Various other powers like France has also got colonies in
the Americas also founded colonies in the Americas; in eastern North America. Portugal tried
colonizing the eastern coasts which is known as Canada in the present day. The Native
European, American and African societies have independently developed over thousands of
years before they have experienced straight contacts with one another. Therefore before meeting
each other they all were colonizers who started exploring to reach new land. (8-10, 30).
Answer 2- The oldest European religious belief came from their beliefs that they drew on a form
of animism. They mainly had their faith on nature, i.e. the sun, stones, animal’s winds, all
animated by spiritual forces. These beliefs made European people to develop localized cults of
knowledge and spiritual practice. Men and women developed rituals in order to protect their
communities, ensure about the harvests, and treat illness and to fight their enemies. They
followed Christianity which grew out of Jewish monotheism, i.e. to belief in one God.
Christianity was their official language. Like America the West Africa also followed the spiritual
sources as well. However the Fulanis in Senegal, the Mande-speakers in Mali and the Hausas in
northern Nigeria, they have learned about Islam from Arab merchants and Muslin leaders called
imams. Nevertheless most Africans acknowledged multiple gods, as well as spirits that lived in
earth, nature and animals. On the other hand Sudanic civilization believed in their own tradition

2AMERICAN HISTORY
monotheism which is completely from Muslims, Christians and Jews. Therefore the majority of
the Sudanic people in West Africa, who lived in stratified states ruled by princess and kings who
were graded as divine. This socio cultural and religious belief has affected their perception on
life, as each place has different history and background and their customs as well, similarly
various religious belief has different rituals and therefore it has different paths and views. Islamic
religion which follows Quran has different beliefs than Bible and therefore the perception
changed. Different cultures and religious belief gives a different set of goals for the people (18-
22).
Answer 3- Commerce played a huge role in European, West African and Native American
societies, Western Europe before their contact with America were the barbarian fringe of the
civilized world. Merchants from the Italian city-states of Genoa, Pisa, Venice and Florence
started to push their way to Arab-dominated trade routes of the Mediterranean. These trades
helped them to carry luxuries of Asia into the European markets. On the other hand the West
Africans made their primary marketing from trans-Saharan trade. The Europeans sailors made
their way along the coast of West and Central Africa, and further stumbled upon with political
landscape. This is how they came together and further planed their commercial growth. This
innovation of theirs further allowed them to sail far toward Atlantic, where they colonized and
discovered the Azore and the Madeira islands. Through this commerce trade they end up
travelling and discovering various places and hence expanded their drive. This way all of them
came together and through this trade they communicated with each other (22-24).
Answer 4- The factors of colonizing experiences differed from place to place, depending on a
mixture of social, economical and political factor. The religion and economic were the two most
important factors in the colonization experience. The European attention in the Americas