How did learning develop differently in the Americas, Africa and Europe during the fifteenth century?

How did learning develop differently in the Americas, Africa and Europe during the fifteenth century? As in any time period, there was a transmission of learning during the fifteenth century in the Americas, Africa and Europe.

How did learning develop differently in the Americas, Africa and Europe during the fifteenth century

As in any time period, there was a transmission of learning during the fifteenth century in the Americas, Africa and Europe.  This learning developed differently in each area for a variety of reasons.  

In the Americas learning was passed on through generations in areas such as religious concepts, values and areas of art, architecture and governance (Smith, 2020).  The isolation of the Americas contributed to a lack of literacy in this area.  Additionally, the people in the Americas were burden ed with manual labor and lack of immunity to disease due to a lack of horses and oxen.  This delayed the development of literacy in the Americas.

In Africa people were less isolated, leading to greater education and literacy among the people.

Due to the trade in Africa at this time, books were brought in, something that was not occurring in the Americas.  During the fifteenth century there were 180 Koranic schools and there were Islamic Universities in Africa (Smith, 2020).

Even preliterate people in Africa were expose to the teaching of practical skills.  This instruction occurred through the use of oral fables, folklore, legends, myths, and proverbs.  One difference worth noting is that in sub-Saharan Africa. Where people were more isolated than those in other parts of Africa.  This greater degree of isolation led to a slower process of learning, more similar to that in the Americas.

Unlike in the Americas or Africa, education was thriving in Europe as a result of shared religion and language (Smith, 2020).  Another strong contributing factor was the invention of the printing press.  This invention allowed the mass production of books and therefore mass dissemination of information.

According to Smith, this made Europe the most literate culture in the world (Smith, 2020).  During this time, there were fifty-six universities. The contribution to the high degree of literate and educated people in Europe. This is a stark contrast to the state of learning and education in the Americas during this time.