Western Civilization

Western Civilization

1 ) The European overseas exploration was known as the Age of Exploration , represented by such renowned travellers as Christopher Columbus , Vasco da Gama , Ferdinand Magellan and many others (Wikipedia 2006 . The monetarists theory of exploration states that it was driven primarily by the lack of gold in Europe and hope to obtain more in other nations

The Europeans were also in need of finding some route that would bypass Muslim states in the Middle East and North Africa that blocked the land routes to China and other parts of

the Orient . The initial rationale behind Columbus ' trip was to find a sea route to India . The realization that this route was possible became possible after the astronomic discoveries of Copernicus , Kepler , and Galileo , that revealed that the earth was round and paved the way for technological possibilities in navigation . Sea powers , such as Spain and Portugal , strove to outstrip each other in the conquest of territories that could control large gold reserves as they hoped . In many cases the Europeans failed to find gold however , Europeans ' outlook was immensely broadened by these discoveries that laid the foundation for future colonization . Natives , on their part , were taken out of their isolation , although their societies were later often exploited by Europeans

2 ) The Aristotelian cosmos presupposed that the earth was flat and that all planets rotated around the earth as the center of the Universe , thus forming a geocentric system . The new science insisted that the earth was a globe , and in Corpernicus ' view , the center of the universe was the sun , with the earth rotating around . This defied the centuries-long worldview supported by the church , and this institution , unwilling to release control of people 's minds , tried to suppress scientific thought .Copernicus , in his Dedication to De Revolutionibus takes care to disclaim that his work is solely an attempt to improve the state of philosophy in his time . By saying that there will be babblers who claim to be judges of astronomy although completely ignorant of the subject and , badly distorting some passage of Scripture to their purpose , will dare to find fault with my undertaking and censure it he seems to imply that the Scripture does not contain any passages that would directly render his ideas false . Copernicus ' Dedication is obviously meant to save his work from prohibition by the church and rescue his scholarly ideas for generations to come

References

Copernicus , N (1997 . De Revolutionibus . Retrieved May 10 , 2006 , from www .raz7 .com /columbia /derev .html

Wikipedia (2006 . Age of Discovery . Retrieved May 10 , 2006 , from http /en .wikipedia .org /wiki /Age_of_Exploration

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WESTERN CIVILIZATION

May 10 , 2006...