Old world and new world

"Prince Henry the Navigator" (also known as Infante Dom Henrique) was a Portuguese prince
who lived from 1394 to 1460. During this period, he was instrumental in the conquest of Ceuta
in North Africa, sponsored expeditions to the North Atlantic and West Africa to establish
colonies, and initiated Portugal's involvement in the African slave trade. Henry's new caravel
ship, which he purchased after his death, played a pivotal role in developing Portuguese
maritime exploration and commerce with other continents. He did so by conducting a systematic
investigation of Western Africa, exploring the Atlantic Islands, and searching for new routes
through the Atlantic Ocean. (Briney, January 23, 2020)In the "Middle Passage," thousands of
enslaved Africans made their way to the Americas (North America, Central America, and South
America), as well as the Caribbean islands around the continent. As he traveled down the west
coast of Africa, Prince Henry set out to find a path to the spice trade Caravel in the Indies.
Ships that sailed the Mediterranean were unable to finish these excursions due to the size and
speed of their vessels. During the early 1400s, Henry of Portugal made sail down the west coast
of Africa, becoming the first well-known European explorer to accomplish this feat. Henry the
Navigator is the moniker his friends and family give to him. To navigate, one must first find a
new path. "The Berlin Conference" split Africa into zones of influence to make each country
what area belonged to them and what land belonged to them not. For most of the 19th century,
France controlled a considerable chunk of Northwest Africa, while the United Kingdom
controlled Southern Africa and Northeast Africa. Large expanses of territory were under the
authority of Belgium, Germany, and Portugal, which were all located throughout Europe.
(Cartwright, 04 August 2021)

Colonies find to benefit the mother country's interests. In "Mercantilism," the government
maintains strict control over trade and international commercial monopolies to unite and develop
the country's power and monetary resources. The whole wealth of a settlement was given to its
European parent, just as a teenage girl might be required to pay up her babysitting earnings to her
parents when she was younger. Only the European country that ruled the colony had the
authority to import or export products under the mercantile system. When England resold the
goods to other countries at a high markup, the monarchy, not the colonists, reaped the financial
benefits. As a result, the colonies toiled diligently, and England reaped the help of their laborers.
The situation is analogous to that of a small girl who has spent eight hours squeezing lemons for
her lemonade shop only to have her parents take over the business after she has finished her shift.
If you were born and raised in the United States, this story of colonist cruelty would be all too
familiar to those of us who attended school here. On the other hand, we didn't learn about how
mercantile capitalism altered Europe. A large number of European countries participated in the
"Berlin Conference" between 1884 and 1885, which had the purpose of splitting the continent
between the participants. The conference was organised by Otto von Bismarck, the German
Chancellor. The 'Scramble for Africa' is the commencement of "the Berlin Conference"
because of its importance in the African continent. They brought plants, animals, and diseases
with them that influenced people and environments on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean as they
traveled across the ocean. Because of the two-way nature of Latin American and
European/African commerce, it refers to the "Columbian Exchange." Strecker discovered the
chemical formula of "quinine" in 1854 while studying the bark of a cinchona tree native to Peru
about 1820. Cinchona alkaloids are a type of chemical compound that falls within this category.
(Qian, Spring 2010)

Works Cited
Briney, A. (January 23, 2020). A Brief History of the Age of Exploration. Retrieved from
https://www.thoughtco.com/age-of-exploration-1435006

Cartwright, M. (04 August 2021). Prince Henry the Navigator. Retrieved from
https://www.worldhistory.org/Prince_Henry_the_Navigator/

Qian, N. N. (Spring 2010). The Columbian Exchange:A History of Disease, Food, and Ideas. Journal of
Economic Perspectives , Volume 24, Number 2, Pages 163–188.