For Want of Great Power

From the first time that Europeans tasted sugar and spices, they were hooked. The European diet, which consisted mostly of bland and tasteless foods, was in need of augmentation, and foreign spices provided it. However, the cost of these foreign goods was immense, as they would have to be taken from India, China, and the surrounding regions by means of a politically difficult route through Constantinople, or an arduous route around the cape of the African continent. Either method proved costly and somewhat dangerous, and the profits were slim for the provider, as already high costs of operation could not be passed onto the consumer, as the niche market that purchased the goods might be alienated by an increase in price. As such, a new route was badly needed by traders and the European economy. Finding such a route would not only gain its discoverer great wealth and fame, but also the nation that he represented, as such a nation could have control over the route. The search was on.

The main goal of Columbus' voyage across the Atlantic was to discover such a route. However, what he actually discovered could the deemed the most successful error in history. Not only did Columbus find a source of great wealth in the species of slaves and foreign foods, but he also discovered a continent entirely unbeknownst to the Europeans at the time, a continent that would soon gain the moniker, "the New World," with it's own indigenous peoples, culture, and opportunity for exploitation.

While Columbus would have been content to Christianize the New World, those who financed his journey wanted something more tangible. Columbus, realizing the peoples of this New World were naïve to the ways of the European, began to take advantage of the American Indians. Thousands were enslaved and sent back to Europe. Token amounts of gold were sent back, even though the area had far richer silver deposits. Spices, sugar, and foreign foods were sent back as well. Quickly, those in power in Europe realized that they could stand to gain much from the exploitation of the New World, and rushed for the chance, Spain specifically.

It was this realization, the greedy desire for more power, money, and fame, that create the fundamental conflict between the Old and New world. Without such an insatiable lust for money and slaves, the conflict would not have been driven to the point that it was, nor carried on for such a great length of time. No motive would have such power as greed, it seems, in pulling the money from the coffers of kings and queens to finance more expeditions, especially if they knew they could stand to gain double of what they put out, or even more. Cargo's flooded back from the New world, and more and more conquistadors began to arrive on the shores of the Americas with the intent of gaining wealth and power for themselves, along with the ancillary goal of Chrisitanizing the "savage" cultures of the American Indians.

In terms of coexistence, such peace was impossible with the motive of the Europeans being what it was. Had the motive be to learn from these new cultures, or to create treaties, coexistence would have been encouraged, as such a relationship would have also added to the power of the kings and queens of Europe. However, it was far easier to rip and tear and destroy these strange cultures. Clearly, its much easier to take the wealth of the nation with no resistance, in the same way its much easier to take the valuables off a dead man than a live one. In addition, the strangeness of Aztec and Incan culture to the Europeans created a caustic atmosphere of violent hatred and arrogant lordship over the American Indian, which would never truly be erased, persisting even in the early United States. This attitude towards the alien culture and ease of exploitation made it impossible for the Europeans to resist ripping off the indigenous people of the Americans and leaving behind only the burning remains of their once great cities.

One could say that from the first time the European culture tasted the spices and sugars of the Far East, the Americas were doomed. Such a lust for power and money led to the speedy expansion of European culture to the Americas, and once the kings and queens of Europe saw that such wealth and power was theirs for the taking, this lust could not be sated, and nothing would stop the European from trampling through the Americas.