This essay examines the factors which led to the expansion of Western Europe through and across the Atlantic Ocean during the 15th through early 17th centuries, the nature of the new 'world' thus created and the impact of European voyages of discovery, conquests and settlement upon the indigenous peoples and cultures involved and in transforming the economies, societies and outlook of the principal European seafaring powers.
Preconditions for Atlantic Expansion
Medieval Mindset. Europeans at the beginning of the 15th century had a very limited and highly distorted view of regions beyond the Continent itself and the Near East from which the major Western religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam sprang.
According to Phillips, the Atlantic Ocean was regarded as a "sea of darkness;" and the known world, as depicted by geographers from the time of Ptolemaic Egypt, lay north of the Equator and was surrounded by one world ocean of uncertain dimensions (p. 32). Classical conquerors such as Alexander the Great had come into contact with India. Europe learned of China from the 1300 century accounts of Marco Polo. Europeans saw themselves as at the center of the universe, but they regarded the East as a place of fabulous riches, "tales of marvels," and "wondrous races of men" (Phillips, p. 35). Christian Europe was disdainful toward non-Europeans. The massacres and looting of the Crusades were justified as the inevitable consequences of holy and just wars to recover the Promised Land from heathens and infidels. Mignolo (1994) said "the outermost corners of the world were supposed to be inhabited by . . . [outlandish] creatures or ferocious barbarians" (p. 46).
Portuguese explorations. The discovery by Christopher Columbus in 1492 of the New World (the Americas) was made possible by earlier 15th century advances in nautical science and the officially sanctioned step-by-step exploration of outlying Atlantic islands, West Africa an...