preview

Influence Of The Columbian Exchange On Native Americans

Decent Essays

The Columbian Exchange was highly profitable for the Spaniards, providing boundless goods and cultural influence. The Columbian Exchange can be viewed as an unmitigated success for Europe; one that truly benefitted the Spaniards, and had a highly negative experience for the Native Americans, who went into near extinction, and were forced to trade off their quality assets. The Columbian exchange offered the Native Americans access to foreign imports, such as horses and new sources of high calorie food, such as wheat. These varying imports aided them in daily tasks, and enabled simpler living on a daily basis. Aside from bartered goods, the Spaniards brought along a new culture — a culture of intrusion, as well as advancement. The new culture was one that forcibly relied upon the …show more content…

Along with overworking and their genetically weak immune systems, the Native Americans were prone to injury. As people had continued to transport through the trade routes, disease began to spread amongst the Native Americans and the population growth had become stunned. In less than 100 years after the Spanish had found North America, the Indian population fell by approximately twenty-four million. The death of the majority population enabled the settlers to easily conquer the Native American land for themselves. In summary, based off of all that the Spaniards had received, it is concluded that they were the ones to be positively impacted by the Columbian Exchange. Therefore, between gold, silver, new land, and economic stability, the Columbian Exchange truly had a positive impact on European Settlers. While it can be looked at as the beginning of expansion for the Europeans, it must also be remembered for the highly negative impact that it had on the Native Americans in what can ultimately be looked at as the onset of a genocide, and the beginning of the end of their

Get Access