Why People Traveled to America

All of the European nations contending for land in the New World had many comparable ideas about it as well as many contradictory ones. There are many different reasons to why the European countries decided to go to the Americas, whether it is for economic values, exploration, or even just to compete with the rival nation and not be left behind in the expansion. There also are many similar motives as to why they left behind all that they knew to travel to the great unknown. It was actually by mistake that America was even found by the European culture. In 1492 Christopher Columbus traveled across the Atlantic Ocean hoping to find a new trading route towards India. Although, as they were traveling towards what they thought was India a massive landmass just happened to pop up and block their way. Thus, the New World was discovered by a miss happening. Whatever was to happen America was about to take witness to one of the greatest demographic disasters in World History.

There are many different explanations as to why most of the main known world powers decided to head to the New World. The first Europeans to reach the Americas, the Spanish, had reached there for at first only exploration. They were trying to explore a faster and more efficient route to trade with the Asian countries. That was easily changed once they discovered the Indigenous people. They thought them to be inferior so they started to treat them that way. They used them as slaves and decided to exploit them by selling them as slaves to people back in Europe which started a new kind of slavery. The French had only one main reason for traveling to the Americas, and it was different from all the rest. They only wanted to make some money over there by setting up a fur trade system with Indians and Europeans. They did this by making alliances with neighboring tribes that rivaled the Iroquois. All they did was help protect the Indian tribes that they made a treaty with from their enemies and they were able to continue their fur trade peacefully. Fur trade being a huge hit in Europe, it made the Dutch come to the Canadian area and try to get into the fur trade business. When they got there they made a treaty with none other than the Mohicans who is the main enemy of the tribes that the French swore to protect. This caused the two nations to become entangled in an ever-deepening contest to hold control of fur trade. England only at first came into view in the exploration to the New World to compete with their rival nation Spain. England saw Spain and other European powers gaining land and wealth from this New World, so they sent navigators to gain a piece of the pie. There was also another huge difference in the treatment of the natives between the European Powers. The Spanish and English came across with a brutal attempt by forcing the natives to do what they wanted. Where as, the French

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