Gold and World History Glittering Motivation for...

Gold is one of the most valuable materials all around the world. This jewel has its own glittering appearance and shiny color which induce people to desire to possess it. That’s probably why Europeans in the middle age have explored new continents and invaded other civilizations to find this glittering material. Americans also had given much endeavor to mine that valuable jewel in the time of gold rush. Investigating these events, gold has immensely affected the world history; the Age of Exploration, invasions of Spaniards, and the development of California. To begin with, Gold was the most significant motivation of ‘the age of exploration’. ‘The age of exploration’ began in the early 15th century and it lasted until the 17th century. The†¦show more content†¦Christopher Columbus is a famous example of the explorers sent to investigate new route by Spain. Gold was also a main trigger of Spaniards’ invasions to ancient civilizations in South America. Most of all, Spain had no choice but conquering South America for gold. Like other Empires in Europe, Spanish monarchy wanted to gain a great amount of gold. However, the ruling families of Spain did not have enough power to compete with France or England for the trade route to the East. Thus, instead of using existing course, Spaniards had to investigate new lands and new trade route to bring more gold to their homeland. Secondly, Lots of Spaniards started off travels to South America as they were highly greedy for the bright stone. Since they considered gold as a chance to upgrade their social status and financial abilities, explorers traveled the present Central and South America to search gold. For example, Hernan Cortes started out an expedition to Central America in 1519 with financial support from the monarchy. He soon encountered with the Aztec Empire. Francisco Pizarro also reached South America, and he found the Empire of Inca. Spanish conquerors finally invaded and destroyed ancient empires to bring gold in ancient empires to Spain. The greed for the glittering material had thoroughly ruined glorious ancient civilizations. Cortes finally conquered the bright Aztec civilization. He exhaustively massacred the natives and then