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phas3

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Oct 5, 2008
1,131
22
So I have this essay that is due in a few days, I was given an essay question but I feel like it doesn't make sense for some reason. Here is the question:


Compare and contrast exploration and colonization during the 15th - 18th century. What was the motivation for these endeavors? What were the costs and benefits of each, and what impact did these endeavors have on various groups? Explain.


I just feel like it is so broad and exploration and colonization are completely different from each other.

Can anyone help me out here, maybe with a thesis or some topic sentences?
 

phas3

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Oct 5, 2008
1,131
22
No, I just want to know if the topic sounds right to you guys? And if so then explain.
 

Jessica Lares

macrumors G3
Oct 31, 2009
9,612
1,055
Near Dallas, Texas, USA
I don't think it's wanting you to compare and contrast both together, but more like your essay should be half about exploration and half about colonization, and you should be analyzing 15th - 18th century between the two topics. Like you said, they're both two completely different things.
 

jav6454

macrumors Core
Nov 14, 2007
22,303
6,257
1 Geostationary Tower Plaza
I don't think it's wanting you to compare and contrast both together, but more like your essay should be half about exploration and half about colonization, and you should be analyzing 15th - 18th century between the two topics. Like you said, they're both two completely different things.

You just restated te question. Your topic is so broad and generalized. There are so many aspects about colonization and exploration. You have the demographics, economic, natural, laboral, and social aspects of it. Not to mention the knowledge that came from the needs of that area.
 

stonyc

macrumors 65816
Feb 15, 2005
1,259
1
Michigan
You just restated te question. Your topic is so broad and generalized. There are so many aspects about colonization and exploration. You have the demographics, economic, natural, laboral, and social aspects of it. Not to mention the knowledge that came from the needs of that area.
It would probably help to know what class this is for... is this for political science? Economics? General history? That could help the OP frame his response within the appropriate context.
 

phas3

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Oct 5, 2008
1,131
22
It would probably help to know what class this is for... is this for political science? Economics? General history? That could help the OP frame his response within the appropriate context.

This is for History of the Americas
 

stonyc

macrumors 65816
Feb 15, 2005
1,259
1
Michigan
This is for History of the Americas
Well, not knowing the general perspective of your class/professor, ask yourself some of these questions...

What was the primary motivation of the European powers to colonize the Americas?

What was the primary motivation of the American exploration to the West?

Were the motivations of the European colonization of the Americas and those of the American exploration of the West the same? Different?

What conflicts arose out of them? Why (again going back to the primary reasons for colonization versus exploration)?
 

phas3

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Oct 5, 2008
1,131
22
Well, not knowing the general perspective of your class/professor, ask yourself some of these questions...

What was the primary motivation of the European powers to colonize the Americas?

What was the primary motivation of the American exploration to the West?

Were the motivations of the European colonization of the Americas and those of the American exploration of the West the same? Different?

What conflicts arose out of them? Why (again going back to the primary reasons for colonization versus exploration)?


Okay that puts it more into perspective; thank you. I really appreciate your help.
 

Mousse

macrumors 68040
Apr 7, 2008
3,465
6,667
Flea Bottom, King's Landing
Easy as pi. Pick two nations, one from each time period. Compare how the got their (_!_) to the new country and what they found. As yerself, was it worth it?

Why don't we just write the whole thing for ya?

I'll give it a shot.

Nation A got there "First!" Or so they thought. Who knew the place was already populated by half nekkid people? None too friendly half-nekkid people at that. The new comers got their (_!_) kicked three ways to Sunday and their hearts offered up to Quetzalcoatl. Way to fail, Nation A. Nation B, having read their history books, sent guys with guns and diseases. When they ran out of ammo, they sneezed on the natives and wiped them out, took their land. Epic win for Nation B.
 

Huntn

macrumors Core
May 5, 2008
23,395
26,519
The Misty Mountains
So I have this essay that is due in a few days, I was given an essay question but I feel like it doesn't make sense for some reason. Here is the question:


Compare and contrast exploration and colonization during the 15th - 18th century. What was the motivation for these endeavors? What were the costs and benefits of each, and what impact did these endeavors have on various groups? Explain.


I just feel like it is so broad and exploration and colonization are completely different from each other.

Can anyone help me out here, maybe with a thesis or some topic sentences?

Exploration is step one, colonization is step two. Control territory and resources to benefit and enrich yourself. :)
 

Scepticalscribe

macrumors Ivy Bridge
Jul 29, 2008
63,832
46,278
In a coffee shop.
Once upon a distant time, I taught the History of the Renaissance, Reformation and Counter-Reformation for around seven years. It was the standard First Year course, (not my own area or speciality) and it was classic journeyman teaching.

However, the essay the OP quoted above is a standard first year university essay; I corrected and graded and gave feedback on - literally - thousands of term papers with that same, or a similar title, while I taught that course.

It is clear to me that the OP had done nothing, and I mean nothing, (not just 'next to nothing') to prepare an essay that every first year student would have been asked to address every year and was hoping for short-cuts and as @mobilehaathi mentioned above in an earlier post, it strikes me that the OP really wanted people here to do his essay for him.

(And, on that topic, I am pretty certain that the OP is male; in nearly twenty years of teaching I observed that that sort of last minute attempt to salvage something and saunter in hoping to persuade someone to help or get someone else to do the grafting with no work or preparation whatsoever and displaying neither guilt, nor any evidence of intellectual curiosity about the subject matter they were supposed to be studying tended to come with someone bearing sticky male thumbprints).
 

Huntn

macrumors Core
May 5, 2008
23,395
26,519
The Misty Mountains
Once upon a distant time, I taught the History of the Renaissance, Reformation and Counter-Reformation for around seven years. It was the standard First Year course, (not my own area or speciality) and it was classic journeyman teaching.

However, the essay the OP quoted above is a standard first year university essay; I corrected and graded and gave feedback on - literally - thousands of term papers with that same, or a similar title, while I taught that course.

It is clear to me that the OP had done nothing, and I mean nothing, (not just 'next to nothing') to prepare an essay that every first year student would have been asked to address every year and was hoping for short-cuts and as @mobilehaathi mentioned above in an earlier post, it strikes me that the OP really wanted people here to do his essay for him.

(And, on that topic, I am pretty certain that the OP is male; in nearly twenty years of teaching I observed that that sort of last minute attempt to salvage something and saunter in hoping to persuade someone to help or get someone else to do the grafting with no work or preparation whatsoever and displaying neither guilt, nor any evidence of intellectual curiosity about the subject matter they were supposed to be studying tended to come with someone bearing sticky male thumbprints).

Devastating analysis! But you are implying only males do this? ;) :p
 
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Scepticalscribe

macrumors Ivy Bridge
Jul 29, 2008
63,832
46,278
In a coffee shop.
Devastating analysis! But you are implying only males do this? ;) :p

Well, in my (pretty considerable) experience, only males try this stunt of strolling into an office (or an online forum) with an air of blithe confidence (at worst, it approaches something akin to entitlement) and cheerfully, guilelessly and guiltlessly asking for help to write an essay the night before the deadline for the submission of the same essay.

A brief conversation will make abundantly clear that they have done absolutely nothing by way of any sort of work, or reading, or preparation. Equally clear is their puzzled demeanour concerning the title of the essay - which is something they have obviously just read for the first time, when they fished it out that evening, and realised, "oh ****, I have to write this for tomorrow''. That is when they ask you 'what does this title mean?' (What they are really asking you is 'tell me what to say/write').

What is funny is their baffled bewilderment when you explain that you cannot write it for them. Let us just say that this is the voice of personal experience speaking here.

So, let us set the scene: Late in the evening, a time I have always liked, because offices on campus were deserted, and I could correct scripts, read stuff, prepare classes for the next day, without interruption or noise. I like working late, and often do so.

Then, you could hear what were the discreet sounds of gentle knocks on my office door at around 7.00 p.m. in the evening, followed by a face looking around the door, wearing a furtive expression and a slightly bashful grin. Sigh. I have even held hands, metaphorically speaking, in my office, and given a few suggestions the night before such submissions were due, to clowns (nice clowns, charming guys, but complete clowns) who still didn't get it, and clearly hadn't taken in so much as a single syllable of the entire course, a course - it becomes increasingly clear, as you chat - where the most basic and fundamental facts are a constant source of astonished revelation to the charming clown sitting in your office, staring at you, and hoping for a life-line.

(And, at university, courses are choices you made; one presupposes some slight degree of interest in the subjects you have chosen to study).

No, @Huntn. I am not saying that females cannot be idiots, and lazy, entitled idiots, too. It is just that they express their idiocy in a different way, and turning up, completely clueless the day before the deadline for submission is not usually one of them.
 
Last edited:

mobilehaathi

macrumors G3
Aug 19, 2008
9,368
6,352
The Anthropocene
Well, in my (pretty considerable) experience, only males try this stunt of strolling into an office (or an online forum) with an air of blithe confidence (at worst, it approaches something akin to entitlement) and cheerfully and guiltlessly asking for help to write an essay the night before the deadline for the submission of the same essay.

A brief conversation will make abundantly clear that they have done absolutely nothing by way of any sort of work, or reading, or preparation. Equally clear is their puzzled demeanour concerning the title of the essay - which is something they have obviously just read for the first time, when they fished it out that evening, and realised, "oh ****, I have to write this for tomorrow''. That is when they ask you 'what does this title mean?' (What they are really asking you is 'tell me what to say/write').

What is funny is their baffled bewilderment when you explain that you cannot write it for them. Let us just say that this is the voice of personal experience speaking here.

So, let us set the scene: Late in the evening, a time I have always liked, because offices on campus were deserted, and I could correct scripts, read stuff, prepare classes for the next day, without interruption or noise. I like working late, and often do so.

Then, there were the discreet sound of gentle knocks on my office door at 7.00 in the evening, followed by a face looking around the door, wearing a furtive expression and slightly bashful grin. Sigh. I have even held hands, metaphorically speaking, in my office, and given a few suggestions the night before such submissions were due, to clowns (nice clowns, charming guys, but complete clowns) who still didn't get it, and clearly hadn't taken in as much as a single syllable of the entire course, a course - it becomes increasingly clear, as you chat - where the most basic and fundamental facts are a constant source of astonished revelation to the charming clown sitting in your office, staring at you, and hoping for a life-line.

(And, at university, courses are choices you made; one presupposes some slight degree of interest in the subjects you have chosen to study).

No, @Huntn. I am not saying that females cannot be idiots, and lazy, entitled idiots, too. It is just that they express their idiocy in a different way, and turning up, completely clueless the day before the deadline for submission is not usually one of them.

Well I'm sure the OP got top marks after making the clever observation that exploration and colonization have nothing to do with one another.
 
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