Zac's+Essay

What can we learn from the rise of the Spanish Empire?

There are many things we can learn from the rise of the spanish empire. One such thing is to always try to find better ways of doing things. If the Spanish hadn't tried to find a faster way to sail to India they wouldn't have found the Americas which was one of the major factors affecting the rise of the Spanish Empire. Another thing we can learn is that we can gain power by exploiting peoples misfortune. Once they had found the Americas they didn't only conquer the people and demand taxes, they also used this new found land to gain resources needed to expand. One of the resources that they found in abundance in the Americas was silver which was used to finance many needs of the Spanish empire and grow their economy. From the rise of the Spanish Empire we can learn that there is always a better way to do things and taking advantage of peoples misfortune are ways or gaining power.

One of the biggest things we can learn from the Spanish Empire is that we should always try to find a better way to do things. If Columbus hadn’t tried to find a faster way to get to India and Asia he wouldn’t of found America.([|*]) He was trying to get to Asia and India by going west instead of going around the coast of Africa and found the Americas by accident. ([|*])If he hadn’t found the America’s the Spanish wouldn’t have found the silver they did which greatly helped them grow as an empire. It provided funds needed to trade with Asia and other eastern nations.([|*]) It also provided funds for the making of the Spanish Armada. ([|*])

Another way the Spanish empire proved that finding new ways of doing things is beneficial was when they discovered mercury amalgamation to refine silver. ( [|*] ) From this discovery they were able to mine and refine the massive amount of silver that they did from mines in the Americas..( [|*] ) This silver was much needed to fund the expansion of the Spanish empire. No one is quite sure if Pedro Fernandez de Velasco invented this amalgamation process or whether he learned it from others in North Africa.( [|*] ) Regardless this new technology was extremely helpful to the Spanish in their rise to power.( [|*] ) It is said that from using the new amalgamation process they were able to refine as much as 10 times more silver than they had been able to do before.( [|*] ) The increase in silver imports helped make Spanish currency very strong which lead to a greater economy. ([|*])

The last way factor that helped the Spanish rise into an empire is that they were willing to take advantage of other peoples misfortunes. The biggest example of this was when they were conquering what is now Central and South America they brought deadly diseases with them such as smallpox.([|*]) The people they were conquering did not have the same immunities to diseases as the Spanish did. ([|*])The Spanish armies that came thought that the diseases were punishments sent upon the Indians from god.([|*]) They took advantage of this and were able to take over the much larger nations that they were attacking. ([|*])Another example of the Spanish taking advantage of peoples misfortunes was when they ran out of people to work on the mines they brought slaves from Africa to work. ([|*])

From the rise of the Spanish Empire we can learn that there is always a better way to do things and taking advantage of peoples misfortune are ways of gaining power. These are not the only ways that the Spanish gained power, but they are some of the ones that we are still using today. Sadly we are still using peoples misfortunes to gain power for ourselves such as child labor and unfair trade. As a culture we should try hard to not use peoples misfortunes but to find new and better ways of doing things.

The Rise of The People – the Early Years