In the century that has preceded the sailing of Christopher Columbus to America; western Europeans were unlikely candidates for the world wide exploration. This was because the Chinese by then possessed the wealth and the sea faring skills that would have enabled them to explore. Against all these advantages they had little interest in the world outside China and there they could not explore. China religion Confucianism provided Chinese with moral principles that developed diligence, patriarchy and social control, which were necessary for the development of viable feudal economy. Chinese were the most powerful Far East nation before the Mongol intrusion due to the developed tributary system, which allowed concentrating large amounts of wealth in the emperor’s court hands, building enormous infrastructure such as Grand channel.
Moreover, this period is marked by the Mongol conquest and creation of Mongol empire which covered vast territories of Asia and Europe. Mongol rule lasted for several centuries until this empire fell apart into several peaces. The Mongols also possessed with capabilities to find new lands.
The beginning of 14-15 century is characterized by so-called “rise of Moscow” when this young expansionist state started to adapt new territories in Arctic, Siberia and Central Asia. It had a possibility to find the way to America through Alaska, but it happened later due to several reasons such as conservation of feudal relations and feudal fragmentation.
During the Islamic golden age which dated between of 8th and 13th centuries, it’s engineers and scholars contributed enormously to the arts, literature, philosophy sciences and technology both by preserving and building upon earlier traditions and by adding their own incentives and innovations; they created unique cultures that influenced societies in every continent. Scientific and Intellectual achievements also blossomed during this period and were passed on to Europe to be expanded upon in the European renaissance. Ottoman Empire created in 1326 started expansionist assault on weak and fragmentized European states torn by conflicts. It managed to conquer large territories of Italy and constantly stayed on the borders of European states.
Equally this Arabs and other Islamic people also possessed wealth and skills but could only expand into the territories that were next to them and could not explore those territories across uncharted oceans. However, though the western Europeans on the other hand were developing the necessary wealth and technology coupled with compelling need to explore.
A group of new monarch was also making nation states in Britain and in continental European states with unprecedented large treasuries together with military establishments, which resulted from Crusades of 13-14 centuries. (Edens, Christopher 1990). The entire population in the European nation states was also growing, providing an enlarged tax base and a labor force for new classes of large land owners. This larger population also provided ready internal market for goods that were only through the trade of European states and Asia. Papacy continued to hold the rule over wealth accumulation and supported colonialist and traveling endeavors of catholic European monarchs.
With all these the western European states were compelled to explore and conquer nations next to their territories together with those across oceans. Their dreams were made easier when the expansion of Islam gave control of eastern trade routes to the Islamic middlemen and hence giving strong incentives to the western Europeans to find other ways to get to Asia. Since they were also developing sailing technology and the knowledge of the currents and winds to assist them to travel long distances on the open sea they felt encouraged.
The Portuguese became the pace setters in this expeditions since they led the way. They did these by coping and improving upon the designs of Arabs sailing ships, they also learned to mount canons on these ships. In the 15th century, the same Portuguese began exploring the western coast of Africa there by passing the Arabs merchants to trade directly for African gold and slaves. They went further by colonizing the West African countries, including Cape Verde and turning them to be the first European slave plantations. While the European explorers were all along looking for an ocean route to Asia, Christopher Columbus sailed for the monarchs of Spain in the year 1492. He used the familiar prevailing winds to the Canary Islands, of the North West coast of Africa and then sailed on. This took him about two months before he landed in the Caribbean on an island in the Bahamas. While here he thought he had arrived in the East Indies and still he made three more voyages, unfortunately he died in the year 1506 while still believing that he had discovered a water route to Asia.
The other western European sailors include, Amerigo Vespucci who was an Italian navigator and who sailed to the north coast of south American in 1499 pronouncing the land a new continent. Later the European mapmaker named it America in his honor. Another Spanish explorer Vasco Nunez Del Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama and in 1513 he became the first European explorer of America to see Pacific Ocean. In the same year his fellow Spaniard Juan Ponec del Leon explored the Bahamas and Florida in search of youth. In addition, some scholars argue that European fishermen had discovered the fishing waters off eastern Canada by 1480 but the recorded voyage was made by an Italian john Carbot who sailed from England to America in 1497. Equally, Giovanni da Verrazzano, in 1524, and Jacques Cartier in 1534 explored nearly the whole of the Atlantic costs of the present United States of America for France. By this time Europe had scouted the American coast from new found land to Brazil while they continued to look for short cuts to Asia but began to think of America for its own sake. The Spaniards also led the way by Hernan Cortes invading Mexico in the year 1519 while still his fellow countryman Francisco Pizarro invaded Peru in the year 1532. Nonetheless several contemporary medieval Arabic reports suggest that Muslims explorers from Islamic Spain and North West Africa may have traveled in expeditions across the Atlantic Ocean possibly to the America between 9th and 14th centuries when Christopher Columbus made his 1st voyage to the America in 1492.It is also thought that he was accompanied by a number of Muslim sailors who traveled with him to the new world. Meanwhile the Islamic civilization which had been creative and dynamic in dealing with issues began to struggle to respond to the challenges and rapid changes it faced during the 12th and 13th century onwards.
As the essay show, notwithstanding the fact that Europeans first discovered new lands other civilization had equal capabilities manage this, but due to various reasons came short of this.
Work cited
- Edens, Christopher. Indus-Arabian Interaction during the Bronze Age. Prepared for Harappan civilization. Gregory possehl, Ed.2nd edition, 1990.
- Bulliet, Crossley, et al. The Earth and Its Peoples: A Global History. 4th edition. Houghton-Mifflin 3rd ed., 2005.