Question
How did the 'discovery' of South America lead to the development of European colonialism ?
Solution
1. For Europe, the 'discovery' of the Americas had consequences for others besides the initial voyages. The influx of gold and silver helped further expansion of international trade and industrialisation. Between 1560 and 1600, a hundred ships each year carried silver from South American mines to Spain. But it was not Spain and Portugal that benefited. They did not invest their huge income in further trade, or in building up a merchant navy. Instead, it was the countries bordering the Atlantic, particularly England, France, Belgium and Holland, that took advantage of the 'discoveries'.
2. Their merchants formed joint-stock companies and sent out trading expeditions, established colonies and introduced Europeans to the products of the New World, including tobacco, potatoes, cane sugar, cacao and rubber.
3. Europe also became familiar with new crops from America, notably potatoes and chillies. These were then taken by Europeans to other countries like India.
4. For the native people of the Americans, the immediate consequences were the physical decimation of local populations, the destruction of their way of life and their enslavement in mines, plantations and mills.
