At the end of the Middle Ages, European technological progress led to the emergence of new navigational equipment and ships, with the help of which Old World sailors began to discover new lands. These studies entailed dramatic changes in all spheres of human life.
Conquest of the New World
The era of the great geographical discoveries begins in 1492, when Christopher Columbus discovered America. Almost the entire New World was declared Spanish possessions. For European ships, overseas lands were a source of income and rare resources, including precious metals. This exploitative attitude toward America was the first consequence of the great geographical discoveries. The Spanish colonialists mercilessly destroyed the indigenous population or made slaves out of the locals. Such a policy adversely affected the development of the entire continent.
For 150 years since the appearance of strangers in America, the indigenous population has declined by about 15 times. The able-bodied male population drove to the mines, where they had to work in inhuman conditions. As a result, fertility declined and traditional forms of agriculture degraded. Other negative consequences of geographical discoveries are regular epidemics of deadly European diseases for the Indians.
Shrinking Native America
In the middle of the XVI century, the Spaniards began to resettle local residents in special villages located near the mines. These people had, on the one hand, to carry out public work, and on the other, to seek food for their own families. The influx of Spaniards in the colony was small. Gradually, a special layer of the population was formed - Europeans born already in the New World and practically having no ties with the mother country. These people began to be called creoles. Their identity was preserved due to the fact that they lived estranged from the Indians.
The local population eroded over time. Entire ethnic groups and tribes disappeared. Local languages were supplanted by Spanish. In addition to Creoles, a group of mestizos appeared - descendants from mixed marriages between Europeans and Indians. In the XVII century, a similar process began with the newcomer black population that appeared in America due to the slave trade. He led to the appearance of mulattoes. Their especially large communities arose in the Caribbean, including Cuba and Haiti, where a plantation economy flourished.
Ethnic Cauldron
All ethnic groups (Indians, Europeans, mulattos, mestizos, blacks, Creoles) existed in a closed manner, they markedly differed from each other in their legal and social status. The existence of castes was enshrined in the laws of the Spanish Empire. The consequences of geographical discoveries also consisted in the fact that in a new colonial society, a person’s social status was determined by his racial and ethnic characteristics.
Relative full rights with Europeans received only creoles. Métis, on the contrary, could not own land, have weapons, live in the community, although they did not need to serve labor duties. Disenfranchised all were Indians.
Christianization
The beginning, history, consequences of the Great geographical discoveries - all this could not do without the influence of the European Church on open continents. The Portuguese and Spaniards were the first to force Catholicism in the conquered regions of America. Priests intentionally destroyed not only pagan cults, but also the culture of the indigenous population of the New World. Ancient monuments and other symbols of the pre-Christian past were destroyed.
The consequences of geographical discoveries, expressed in church pressure, whose history spanned several centuries, provoked protest and resistance from the Gentiles. Regular riots forced priests and bishops to change their policies somewhat, making them softer and more compromise. One way or another, but the Indian culture, having survived the terrible onslaught of the Europeans, still survived and survived.
Exploitation of blacks
The New World has become for Europeans a source of a huge amount of resources. For their production and development required a lot of slaves. As noted above, the population of America has tragically declined. The small enslaved Indians could not satisfy the requests of the metropolises.
The solution to this contradiction was the emergence of the transatlantic slave trade. In the middle of the XVI century, a whole system was formed to capture slaves in West Africa and transport them to America (mainly to Brazil, Colombia, the Caribbean Islands and the southern United States). Most of them were exported from the Congo Basin.
The fight against slavery
Studying the consequences of geographical discoveries (Grade 7), they dwell on this topic in detail, and this is not surprising if we take into account the scale of what has been happening for several centuries. According to various estimates, about 17 million people were subjected to forced deportation over 400 years. The United Nations regards the transatlantic slave trade as one of the most serious human rights violations in history.
The fight against violence against blacks began in the 18th century. In England, the first human rights organizations were created that informed society about the difficult living conditions of slaves. The Quakers of America also reacted negatively to slavery. The turning point came after the famous Haitian rebellion of slaves. It lasted as long as thirteen years (1791-1804). In the end, the French authorities recognized defeat and granted the colony independence.
abolition of slavery
Other European powers were wary of what had happened in Haiti. It became clear that an increase in the number of slaves would only aggravate the situation in all of America and lead to an ongoing war. Against the background of these sentiments, the transatlantic slave trade began to gradually curtail. Nevertheless, in some regions, the previous order was eradicated with great difficulty.
In the US, the slave trade was abolished in 1807. However, slavery itself remained there. It was finally abolished only in the middle of 1860. To do this, the United States had to survive at first the economic, and then the military conflict of the northern industrial and southern slave states, resulting in a bloody Civil War. The last trade in slaves from Africa in 1888 was canceled by Brazil.
Economic impact
Some consequences of geographical discoveries did not lead to profound changes immediately, but only on the scale of several generations. For example, they, along with some other reasons, destroyed European feudalism, which was replaced by capitalism. Market relations developed after the number of goods sold increased. These were rare Asian products and American treasures.
Huge trading companies arose, and major maritime powers began to compete with each other not only on the battlefield, but also in the economy. The consequences of geographical discoveries, such as the “price revolution” in Europe in the 16th century, when they grew by about 400%, turned the political situation in the metropolises upside down. The winners were countries with developed commodity production (England and the Netherlands). Gradually they replaced the old colonial empires (Portugal and Spain) from the markets, which eventually fell into serious decline.
Industry change
Colonies have become a large external market for industry. These changes led to a crisis of medieval workshops, unable to meet the increased demand. The old craft was replaced by capitalist manufactory. It began to apply the division of labor, which increased the scale of production by an order of magnitude. The result of these transformations was the concentration of capital and the formation of the bourgeoisie.
The causes and consequences of geographical discoveries benefited some European countries and significantly hurt others. Thus, the emergence of the American market reduced the importance of trade in the Mediterranean, which painfully hit Italian cities. Having played an important role in the Middle Ages, the republics of Venice and Genoa fell into decline.
New trade centers
From Italian cities, the status of centers of international maritime trade passed to Seville, Lisbon and Antwerp. An example of this Dutch port is particularly indicative. As early as the 15th century, Antwerp became an important point of sale for English cloth, French wool and German metal. With the opening of new continents, the trade in colonial goods and spices was concentrated in the Dutch port.
Antwerp has become a place of concentration of European money. All banks and merchants of the Old World opened their offices in it. There was also a stock exchange. Important consequences of geographical discoveries were the emergence of a system for issuing international loans necessary for trade. Modern securities have appeared: bonds, bills and stocks.
Capitalism is replacing feudalism
The small Netherlands quickly became the most economically developed state in Europe. Their capitalist system turned out to be more effective than the feudal system (typical of Spain and Portugal). The first colonial empires received huge incomes, but to the detriment of themselves they spent them on the maintenance of the aristocracy and the royal court. Taking advantage of the new colonial opportunities, English and Dutch free entrepreneurs helped their countries become the richest and most prosperous states of modern times.
Columbus exchange
In everyday life of ordinary Europeans, the consequences of the Great geographical discoveries were most reflected in such a way that new unfamiliar goods appeared in the Old World: coffee, cocoa, tobacco, tomatoes, potatoes, tea, spices. The movement of animals, plants, technologies, and cultural achievements from one part of the world to another is called the Columbian Exchange.
In America, as a result of this process, cows, horses, sheep, wheat, coffee, cotton, sugarcane, etc. appeared. Some species moved to other continents inadvertently. These include rats, Colorado beetles, some weeds. Trying to explain what consequences of the Great geographical discoveries influenced the life of Europe, scientists introduced a new term: "neophyte". This name was given to plants that appeared in a strange flora for themselves as a result of human activity. Thus, the consequences of geographical discoveries, the table of which is presented below, were reflected in the most diverse areas of human life.
The Consequences of the Great Geographical Discoveries| Political | Economic | Rest |
| The emergence of colonial empires | The emergence of new products in Europe | Transatlantic slave trade |
| European conquest of much of the world | The decline of the feudal economy | Christianization of the Gentiles |
Imperialism
Thanks to colonial conquests, European powers began to control most of the world. Thus a new political order has developed - imperialism. His first incarnation was Spain. Having destroyed the formidable states of the Incas and Aztecs, she took their place, creating a rigid system of coercion and slave labor in her American possessions.
Then the Spanish example served as a prototype for the colonial policies of Holland, Great Britain, France and some other countries. Indigenous peoples were destroyed, religious cults were eradicated. Europeans conquered all parts of the world except the Middle East and East Asia. In this region, preserved Chinese and Japanese civilization. Both countries periodically tried to take the path of isolationism from aggressive colonialists.
The causes and consequences of the great geographical discoveries redrawed the political map of the world. Colonial empires continued to exist for several centuries. The last of them granted independence to the conquered countries (primarily in Africa) only in the second half of the 20th century.