The Extent of European Influence on the World in 1650

The extent of European influence was almost unavoidable during the 1650's. After the Dark Ages and the Renaissance were over Europe became an intellectual and wealthy hub in the known world. There are several reasons that made this possible. A few were there vast merchant trading system there ability to maintain advanced weapon technology and the most important factor, the drive to explore everywhere there ships would take them. With these factors in place it is no surprise that Europe was a dominant world power. Their desire to expand their nations was so strong that many explorers dedicated their lives to discovering and conquering new lanRAB. This is not to say that their motivations were not money. The only way to survive was to be the ones with the most money because from wealth everything else followed. Not to mention the blood that was shed along the way from the millions of natives that were enslaved, tortured and killed.
The first explorers or conquistadors, were actually Spanish and not English, contrary to popular belief. The three main conquistadors were Cortes, Colurabus and Pizarro. Probably the most ironic part of that new age of discovery is that when Colurabus original departed from Spain his mission was to find a quicker trade route to Asia than the Portuguese. Colurabus found the America's by accident. At first he thought that he had come upon the IslanRAB southeast of India. But it was not until some other Spanish explorer clirabed a huge mountain in Central America and saw there was an even bigger ocean on the other side. This made it quite obvious that this was not the Indies but a completely new continent. All this is important because finding this new land was untouched resources is how Europe turned a new trade route into a whole new very wealthy economy.
It was not very long until the French, English and even the Swedes figured out that this was something that they should probably start doing. The bottom line with any country at this time was to expand and start building a solid economy; learning through others did this. When the Spanish discovered the largest silver mine in Peru they created a whole new way to make money. Instead of using the land to make money, they simply extracted it from the earth and shipped it over to Spain. So here they have all this money and all they do is spend it. They could have used the money to build factories and build up the economy in Spain. Instead they spread all there wealth throughout Europe making other countries rich. Finally Spain ran out of money, mostly due to the fact that all there major silver and gold mines in the America's had run out. This is what gave the rest of Europe a chance to move in on all this new territory. Along with the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 by the English, It immediately became the time for other countries to make the move to the west.
As mentioned before there were many reasons for the domination of America by Europe. To start with Europe ability to set up and maintain busy trading routes was remarkable. Vast trade routes were set up by sea around the southern tip of Africa to other trade routes to Asia, all stopping at different ports along the way. Because these routes took them around Africa it gave the merchants a chance to make a lot of profit. The still primitive Africans did not have the knowledge of making metal so it was an extensive commodity. For example they could trade a metal knife or pot for twenty bags of grain. In turn this gave them more to trade with further down the trade route. Because the Portuguese pretty much had complete control of these routes the rest of Europe was going to concentrate on figuring out what the hell was across that big blue ocean. The only problem that was created by this idea was that common doctrine was that the earth was flat and you would just sail off the side and into space. This resulted in not having to many volunteers in making the voyage. However a few did such as Colurabus, Cortes and Pizzaro. It was these voyages that triggered the greatest discovery in the history of man, America. From the bottom of South America to the cold waters of Canada and Alaska trade routes were everywhere. This led to the migration of Europeans to America. Everything from power to immense wealth was created from the discovery of America, but the only ones getting long end of the stick were the Europeans.
Now that Europe had a lot of money that gave them the chance to build big fleets and design new weapons that no one else had ever seen. With ability to not only be able to fight each other and win, taking over even huge Indian cities and villages was no problem. The King of Spain started sending out explorers with armies, these men were called conquistadors. The Indians were still using very primitive weapons that were no match for these warriors in their metal skins. When the Spanish first started their explorations everywhere they went they destroyed, literally every bit of evidence that there was human civilization. Even if the Spanish were using less than honorable modes of establishing themselves, the French and English were being business minded in the north. They approached the Indians as more of a business partner. They were imitating what the Portuguese were doing with the Africans. They were able to introduce metal and could profit ten fold. Not to mention that at that time beavers were discovered. This is important because beaverskin repels water and are good for making hats. All the sudden the English, French and a few other European countries with their advanced weapons were able to control all the waterways and defend their villages from the Indians. This massive pilgrimage from Europe to America expanded an already large and powerful area even bigger.
And finally the most important ingredient in the domination of Europe as one of the few world powers, their almost insane drive to explore and conquer. Without the drive it is possible that it would have taken a lot longer to discover that the world is round and there is something else besides us. You can't blame them though, I would have been very curious myself to find out what is on the other side of the Great Ocean.
Everything that was happening in 1650 must have made being alive and living in Europe a very exciting experience. The fact that certain events fell into place at the right time gave Europe the chance to move in and colonize new places and in some situations start new governments. There is no doubt that Europe was dominating not only there own land but traveling further and dominating unknown places to the Europeans. Along they brought new cultures, religions material things and a completely different looking people. And there you have it, the extent of the Europeans influence was spread faster and further than any other group of cultures, making Europe a prominent world power for many years to come.