Positive Effects Of American Exploration

As global encounters and exploration have essentially transformed the outcome of today’s society for the better, one must look at the history of the events and see what has truly come about from these experiences. As taught, exploration has provided, for the most part, a better outcome to the future, expanding to areas all over the world to colonize and advance in many aspects, giving today’s world the idea that settlement and global encounters of many nations revolutionized the world, while remaining blind to the negative effects it carried out. As each colonizer or explorer critiqued the citizens it attempted pursue, it is evident that a ethnocentric mindset had been been much in place. However, a contrasting observation must be seen as …show more content…
Looking further, it could be argued that if violence and war were not the first intentions from the colonizers, both parties could have in a way, come together to create a much better society than what we are already gifted with today. In today’s society we are often blinded by the light that is our high-standard of living in first world countries, while not seeing the dire negative outcomes of colonization. Whether lives were lost for the benefit of today’s America’s or a land was completely left astray seeing common day Africa, an alternative perspective must always be used when viewing the aspects of historical exploration. Seeing the positive and negative outcomes that came about a dominant European exploration, this paper will examine the sources of Cortés’ view of Tenochtitlán, commentary of foreigners from a Ming Official, Olaudah Equiano on the Atlantic crossing and the Portuguese views of the Chinese, showing that despite what good exploration has brought, it has potentially also, negatively altered the future in what could have been for the already advanced societies of these …show more content…
In conclusion, all four sources portray a ethnocentric approach to how European societies at the time of the sources dominate other societies around the globe. In contrast, the opposing cultures shown all view Europeans as ‘savages’ or cruel and are essentially confused with the intents Europeans have. Although skilled and knowledgable, European societies around these times used there strengths to overpower other societies, usually in the most brutal means possible. Furthermore, the opaque events of exploration often leave the common era naïve to how territories and civilizations were established. While many countries today are gifted with advanced technologies and a high standard of living, this was virtually caused by the devastations a superior nation put on another, despite the affected peoples having more potential with infrastructures and advancements in that society. Looking at these four sources, we grasp a better understanding of the contrasting views in a dominate European culture, to that of a diverse foreign culture. Despite the devastations