Reference no: EM133687802 , Length: Words Count:600
ESSAY DIRECTIONS: MUST BE IN MLA FORMAT AND AT LEAST 600 WORDS
ANSWER THE PROMPT:
As you have learned from the assigned course material, western Europeans were content to stay close to home for most of their history up until the 15th Century. Eventually, however, they began to venture farther and farther from their homeland. Following the directions above please provide me with FOUR of the most important lessons learned by Europeans (according to the required course material for this class- your class Focus PowerPoints and your required e-textbook) as they first embarked on colonization in the 15th Century. [HINT: Your answer should focus on the Portuguese.]
USE THESE FOUR KEY FACTS The four key takeaways from the Portuguese exploration of these islands were:
•·How to survive long-distance sea voyages - As I said earlier, these three islands were perfectly placed to build the explorers' confidence. From here the Europeans began to turn their eyes further and further westward.
•·How to successfully use weapons, horses, and war dogs- Europeans quickly learned that they had a few hidden weapons included as part of their everyday normal military lives. While everyone in Europe had cavalry, gunpowder weapons, and war dogs (think Great Danes and English Mastiffs), the native populations did not. For the natives, all three proved at least psychologically terrifying.
•·How to exploit native rivals- Europeans soon learned that native tribes had complex relationships. Some tribes were friends, others were enemies. Soon the Europeans used the rivalries for their benefit, supporting one tribe against the other. This meant that Europeans allowed the individual tribes to do their dirty work and once the mutual enemy had been taken care of the Europeans turned the wrath towards their supposed native allies.
•·How to unintentionally/ intentionally use germ warfare- We are going to spend more time talking about this in a bit, but the thing to keep in mind is Europe had through various unintentional reasons been breeding super-killing diseases for thousands of years. These diseases proved particularly deadly to native populations who had not come into contact with European germs. Needless to say, while at first, it was unintentional (remember germ theory did not come into practice until after 1865).