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How might the history of Mexico and south America have been different if the spanish had not discovered gold and silver there?
Wiki User
∙ 11y ago
What Columbus and other explorers were looking for was a free passage from Europe to the Far East. When they found out that the Americas were a full-fledged continent, they tried to take the land for all its Natural Resources and commercial capability; not just for silver and gold.
In any case, if the Americas had been a continent with poor mineral resources, it would have changed the history of Europe, and probably of the western civilization. For example, most silver and gold mined in the New Spain (present-day Mexico) accounted for US$1.5 trillion in present-day terms. This wealth was wasted by the Spanish crown to pay off the debt acquired due to countless religious wars, specially against France. This in turn triggered two effects: the dependency of Spain for inter-colonial trade and the rise of the social class known as the bourgeoisie.
Without inter-colonial trade, most colonies in the Americas would have remained relatively intact, at the expense of social and economic development. Eventually, they would have suffered the same fate of present-day Africa: a continent with the original population almost untouched, but with a large social and economic lag. Notice that Latin America is in general the most advanced region within the developing countries.
On the other hand, without the bourgeoisie, events such as the English, American and French revolutions wouldn't have taken place and most probably, Europe would remain as a tight group of monarchies and empires. Finally, other events such as the Industrial Revolution wouldn't have occurred until a much later date.
Wiki User
∙ 12y ago
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