Of the dozens of texts held sacred by the school of Judaic mysticism known as Kabbalah, perhaps the most important is the Sefer Hazohar, (literally the Book of Splendor. Indeed, students of this collection of several lengthy Kabbalistic commentaries on the Torah — most commonly known in the West as the Holy Zohar – often assign it the same stature as Judaism’s two most holy books, the Torah and the Talmud. 
And there was good reason for Jewish scholars to keep to the Zohar away from public scrutiny. The book maintains that the Torah and, by extension, all of reality exists on two distinct levels: the exoteric and the esoteric. It further posits that there is no one true interpretation of the Old Testament and that every soul is given – and, more importantly, encouraged — to make its own unique reading of scripture. 
The mid to late 15th century in Europe introduced a great age of travel and exchange, termed the Age of Exploration and Discovery. In the two centuries that followed, European merchants and explorers would travel the world in search of goods and lands and sheer discovery in unprecedented numbers. The Portuguese and the Spanish were the earliest adventurers, soon followed by the British, French and Dutch, each eager to acquire new lands and riches in their quest to become the supreme European power. A time of global expansion was upon them.
The interest in traveling beyond one’s own territory grew out of a change in mindset among Europeans. They began looking beyond their familiar lands with an appreciation for what new commerce and territorial expansion could do for them. New ideas and philosophies were stirring in Europe and a curiosity for new knowledge and new experience along with the promise of untold riches led monarchs of Europe to fund exploration. Famous European explorers that contributed to the changing world map included Christopher Columbus, Ferdinand Magellan, Vasco da Gama, Sir Francis Drake, Sir Walter Raleigh, Hernando Cortes, John Cabot and Samuel de Champlain, among others.
The Portuguese were the first to send explorers to the East in search of spices and goods unavailable in Europe and as a result of this effort became a great sea-faring empire reliant on trade. Bartholomeu Dias and Vasco da Gama were the first Portuguese explorers to round Africa’s Cape of Good Hope in voyages that returned to Portugal loaded with foreign goods.
The Spanish, in their turn, also began explorations in their search for new lands that would yield a different form of wealth through the discovery and mining of gold and silver. The Spanish also sought routes to the East but discovered, instead, the lands of the New World. Christopher Columbus was commissioned by the Spanish monarchs, Isabella I and Ferdinand V, to sail East to India via a Western route. He discovered for the Europeans many of the Caribbean islands and on one of his last voyages touched Panama. Later Spanish explorers such as Vasco Nunez de Balboa, Ferdinand Magellan, Hernando de Soto, Juan Ponce de Leon and Francisco Pizarro would expand upon his initial explorations and eventually open the lands of North and South America to Spanish colonization.
The French, the British and the Dutch entered the race of discovery soon afterwards and began an era of expansion and conquest, as well as commerce, unseen in the West since the fall of the Roman Empire. English exploration began with the explorers John and Sebastian Cabot, funded by Henry VII, and yielded the islands of Labrador and Newfoundland in 1497. Following these discoveries and during the age of Queen Elizabeth I, explorers such as Sir Walter Raleigh, Sir Francis Drake, and Sir John Hawkins, among others, embarked on their voyages of discovery during the Elizabethan reign of Queen Elizabeth I. They were referred to as pirates and privateers by their enemies, as other explorers were labeled conquistadors and exploiters by those whose lands they came upon. French explorers also made their contribution to the Age of Discovery, including Jacques Cartier, Jacques Marquette and Samuel de Champlain.
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The age of exploration and discovery transformed the continental powers of Europe into world powers. With the exploration of these newly discovered lands, the European powers accumulated wealth, economic influence and global aspirations through the subjugation of the native people and the exploitation of the natural resources of their newfound colonial territories. Though it would take centuries of European infighting and two world wars to weaken the European stranglehold on their former colonies in Africa, Asia, The Pacific Islands and Latin America, the effects of the European exploration and colonization continues to define the struggle that these | |||||||||||
| former colonies face in their attempt to establish a modern nation state. | ||||||||||||
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