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1492: The European Expansion

After the long period of crisis that characterized the end of the Middle Ages, Europe , from the mid-fifteenth century, manifested a remarkable dynamism.The population began to increase, the lands became again in tillage, trade routes experienced the heyday of yesteryear.

1492: The European Expansion

Sailing always in search of expensive spices and gold, European navigators launched themselves farther and farther into the ocean.Two inventions dominated the progress of the technique: the printing press of Gutenberg, and the artillery.

In relation to all this, economic wealth and discovery of the world, advent of a new humanism and artistic flourishing, the date of 1492 does not constitute All a surprise.

However, the new islands that were found Cristobal Colon were to be revealed as the pr imera scale of an immense and unsuspected continent; and the Spaniards would carry their spirit of crusader evangelists and voracious conquerors to him.

" Renaissance ", " 16th century revolution "," Explosion of the XVI ", such expressions indicate the subjective admiration that I experienced later for a time I met Carlos V at the same time and Jacob Fugger, MiguelAngel, Erasmus, and Copernicus, Luther and Ignacio de Loyola.From 1492 , the European expansion stands out in two revealing aspects:

1492: The European Expansion

A new conception of man

The anthropocentrism was the new way of perceiving man, as the center of "Creation", but also, free, powerful, and intelligent.Strategic princes, humanists, merchants, artists, become the ideal of human .

This new notion transform the relationship with God , now you can reach it through knowledge, beauty and honor.The Church responds to these changes with the Lutheran Reformation and the Catholic Counter Reformation.

1492: The European Expansion

A new vision of the world

After Colon , by Vasco da Gama, and Magellan, the shape of the Earth is revealed.It was also time to review the cosmology , suggesting that the center of the universe was not the Earth, but the Sun; that would be the work of Copernico.

Shortly before the end of the century began to reflect, very precariously, on the fact that beyond the seas, in the continent s recently discovered, there were cultures that were not European, and civilizations older and empires as organized as those of Europe .

Sources: Levinas, M.: The Images of the Universe, Buenos Aires./Venard, M.: The Beginnings of the Modern World, XVI and XVII centuries, The World and its History, Argos./

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