The Renaissance and the New World, Essay Example

Weber opens this section by pointing out that the passion for glory is a driving factor in what made discoverers take action. They believed that things that were lefts undone in society still needed to be done, so they sought out to become famous and known through making history. Theory is also an important part of this time period. The theorists thought in-depth about war, art, and the world. Their thoughts about the world led to questions of geography, but because people were taking voyages, these theorists were not able to settle on outrageous ideas because they were forced to acknowledge the factual observations of actual explorations. Theories about the globe led to sea charts and ship logs forming as well as geographers re-establishing their theory as to whether it’s possible to sail around the world. Weber notes that fter the death of Leonardo Divinci, French physician Ambrose Pere created the forumla based on Leonardo’s findings that knowledge must be based on findings of the past and living off those findings like they are stilts from the past. He goes onto note that if it is found that information one is perceiving now does not correspond with that of the past   This scientific formula led mean to questions things for themselves, so that all things like the bible and old standards of living could be questions without mandatory broad conformity. Weber says this becomes a revolution to study the knowledge of what is, instead of what has been.

The texts notes that many of these explorations were motivated by the need for trade. Sugar is seen as an example of this in that sugar cane flourished in the New World, where it was scarce in other places, specifically Africa and Europe (Sherman & Salisbury, 388). The text identifies the primary reason for importing African slaves as the rise of plantations in the 18^th century. The authors note, “By the eighteenth century, the rise in plantations in North America caused slaves to be imported directly from Africa in large numbers  (Sherman & Salisbury, 389).” During the 17^th century the slaves taken to North America, actually were from the Csaribean and had European surnames. Slaves rebelled by running into the woods and starting their own communities, working slow, or fleeing to Brazil.

In document 10.2, on Savonarola the texts notes that, “there was made on the Piazza de’ Signoria pile of vain things, nude statues and playing-boards, heretic books, Morganti [poems], mirrors, and many other vain things, of great value, estimated at thousands of ?orins (Sherman & Salisbury, 313).” These objects were a testament to the opulence and affluence of Florence.

Christianity in the New World

Missionaries played a major role in the expansion of Christianity. Some of the missionaries in the Americas proved acutely sensitive to the needs of the new converts. The modified Christian practice to coincide with local religious ways. Las Casas was one of these missionaries. Another one was Marie de l’Incarnation (1599–ca. 1669), a French nun who founded a con-vent in Quebec to teach native Canadian girls (Sherman & Salisbury, 390).” Christianity spread and Christian practice changed as it accommodated the needs of new converts (Sherman & Salisbury, 391).  European physicians theories about the value of coffee is that is treats heart disease, and treats colds that attack the lungs (Sherman & Salisbury, 400). European physicians theories about the value of tobacco, as noted in the text states that, “Europeans cultivated tobacco at ?rst for medicinal purposes—one sixteenth- century Parisian claimed that it cured all ills—and the plant then spread rapidly all over the world (Sherman & Salisbury, 400).” The importance of Mercator maps and projection as noted in the text is that “The new maps created as explorers traveled the global coastlines and great rivers were almost as precise as the naturalists’ drawings. These representations offered a much more realistic picture of the world than Ptolemy’s map that guided Columbus (Sherman & Salisbury, 400).” “The mercator projection was a huge step forward in mapmaking, but it still allowed for some measure f geographic illusion (Sherman & Salisbury, 401).

Economic Nationalism

Mercantilism was based on the assumption that the amount of worldwide wealth was ?xed, so countries competed to get a larger piece of the pie. This was essentially economic nationalism, in which governments controlled their economies to increase their acquisition of hard currency (Sherman & Salisbury, 394).” “Mercantilist governments passed laws to ensure a favorable trade balance. They imposed tariffs on imports and discouraged manufacturing in their colonies to force them to buy exports from the home country (Sherman & Salisbury, 394).”