In essence, the overall idea of the American dream was established a long time ago even before its coinage. However, this idea of the American dream could no doubt be traced chronologically from its discovery through its colonization to the present day the United States. The primary source document “The age of exploration (1600)” highlights the various stages of the exploration of America from 1492 to 1608 right from its discovery by Columbus. On the other hand the article “THE AMERICAN COLONIES [1620-1733]” discusses the overall idea of the America colonies from 1620 to 1733 (Schulman). The American discovery and its colonies are well crafted in the two documents thus giving arrays of knowledge regarding American history. This paper proposes to discuss in detail the discovery of America and its colonies by using the above two sources. While the articles touch on many topics, this paper will specifically address the discovery and colonization of America.

Primarily, the Spanish expedition which was led by the famous Christopher Columbus had sailed around the continent of America around 1492 where he introduced the new world of his discovery to the Western World of the time (David 40). According to the article, Columbus started by studying the overall civilization that he had come across on his journey to explore the world, especially the friendly Native Americans of the time. After this exploration, there was a rampant European conquest, exploration as well as colonization. Through the entire journey to the discovery of America, there is a clear explanation of the way exploration of America came happened. The article asserts its relevance in explaining the exploration and colonization of America.

Columbus himself described his voyage to the discovery of America. According to the article, immediately after the treaty of Tordesillas in the year 1494 which was approved by the Pope, Spain as well as Portugal led to the division of the entire non-European world. In this light, a line was drawn through South America during the division of the New World (Schulman). The first journey that Columbus covered was around the Caribbean costs particularly on the Hispaniola Island, Puerto Rico as well as the Cuba Island. At the beginning of the 16th century, he expanded his expedition into the North and South America. Apparently, Columbus’s voyage reached the South American coast in his third trip.

According to the article, Spain sent its expedition and through a corporation with Indian allies, they rapidly conquered the territory. Notably, this made them gain more control over the land in South America, Central America, and Mexico particularly by the mid of the 16th century (Schulman). Over the same period of time, much of the eastern South America which is known as Brazil was colonized by Portugal.