European Expansion

European Expansion

Reasons for European expansion include the discovery of the new world, the Americas, as well as scientific and technological advancements that expanded industry and the desire for trade. Marco Polo journey is what started the European expansion. He is the one who started up the trade and changed the way people looked at things. He brought new commodities to Europe such as, Spices, rubies, silk, cotton, dyes, perfume, makeup, sugar, gun powder, paste and rice. He brought about the feudal system. As the European people began to utilize these commodities they wanted more and more and the need for expansion grew. This caused them to have to figure out away to get to their journey and back safely.

As time went on it became a competition. Other countries wanted control over the trading system. It turned in to greed and control. Some of the commodities that came about required land to grow crops. So now people are not only after spices and silk but now land. Once land was established they needed people to perform the labor necessary. As land was taken over other commodities was discovered such as glass, copper, and ironware. They did not know what to do with it but in time they figured it out. Iron was able to make weapons such as knives which made it easier to hunt. Also axes to cut down trees and build and a host of other things. This expansion started wars. People were fighting for their land and people who won the land had to fight others to keep the land. In the process disease was brought in to other countries. The trading system just kept growing and the exchanges was continually changing. The exchanges changed according to what brought in the most power and profit. One of the exchanges that were worth the most money was slaves. So now we went from spices, to land and slaves and bunch of other exchanges I left out, but the point is the trading system continued to change based on what was the highest demand and cost.