Please answer ONE of the following questions that deal with Chapter Sixteen (Age of Discovery)  Your essay should be approximately two pages in length, typed, and double-spaced (feel free to write more as needed). 

1. Traditionally, “God, Gold, and Glory” are given as the chief reasons that the West began to explore the regions around the Atlantic Ocean at the end of the fifteenth century. In what ways does the chapter describe the motivations for the European exploration? What types of new technologies aided exploration in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries? What were some of the main sources of conflict between Europeans and Native Americans in the first decades after conflict? In your essay you will wish to discuss importance of sugar as a commodity, the development of feitorias, the development of the encomienda system, and the impact of the Columbian Exchange.  (Pages 566-583)
2. What factors aided the Spanish conquest of the Aztec and Inca Empires? How have historians interpreted the “myths and realities” of the conquests made by the Spanish in the New World?  In what ways did Spain rule their new empire in the Americas?  In your essay you will wish to discuss the role played by specific conquistadors, the concept of “causal factors” in the collapse of the Aztec and Inca Empires, the importance of silver in the New World, and role of the Inquisition in the New World. (Pages 583-598)