Renaissance Europe and the population of America

Resumo

(1st paragraph of the article)

The Renaissance has aptly been characterized as the “Age of Reconnaissance”, for behind the revival of interest in classical learning which has given its name to the age was the outpouring of energy in Western Europe that came from the creation of a new technology and new forms of organization. Improvements in ship design and navigation together with application of men and capital enabled Europe to explore deep into the oceans and to reach the shores of the greater part of the inhabited lands on the globe. For most of Asia and Africa it was a charting of coasts and exploration inland, the establishment of factories or posts on shores as foci of trade, with little conquest of the interior. Only in the Western Hemisphere did the Europeans of the Renaissance establish relatively permanent dominion far inland, subject to their rule great native states, and embark upon settlement with relatively substantial numbers. To the middle of the seventeenth century that was the effort of the Portuguese and most of all of the Spanish