European Dominance In The Americas Essay

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Consequences of European Dominance in the Americas In the late 15th century, Europe began its rapid series of explorations and conquering of the Americas. Christopher Columbus of Italy was sponsored by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain to sail across the Atlantic to India. Instead, he docked his three ships in the Americas, where he and his crew found Native American Indians as well as useful materials for European; this was the first of many successful voyages of the Europeans. Over time, Europe began to voyage across many waters for the search of new territories for God, gold, and glory, unconcerned about the natives. The countries of Europe began to compete with each neighboring country in order to discover and claim more land than the other. Europe became an indestructible and eventually dominated North and South America, but the results were fatal. European dominance in the Americas opened a new window …show more content…

A cruel system was established that would not be abolished in the Americas for another 300 years. The slave owners would often times abuse their slaves and force their religion on them. Pope Nicholas V writes in Romanus Pontifex, “Invade, search out, capture, vanquish, and subdue all Saracens and pagans” (Nicholas Document 1). Pope Nicholas V declares that Christians of the Catholic Church need to do whatever they can do to convert as many people to Christianity as possible. This papal bull encouraged many Europeans to mistreat Indians slaves in order to convert their beliefs. Document 5 shows how Europeans successfully enforced Christianity; the Lord’s Prayer is translated into Micmac - the language of many Native Americans. The enslavement of Indians was a consequence of European dominance in the Americas because it impacted religion in the Americas and among the