The Impact Of European Expeditions On The American Regions Essay

Though warfare and attacks on entire villages took a definite toll on the populations of Native Americans, disease was by far the biggest killer. We’ve all heard the stories of smallpox infected blankets being given to the Native Americans, and other such atrocities, but I was simply dumbfounded at the actual numbers of dead due to Old World diseases being introduced to the New World, North America. While it has been somewhat difficult for scholars to determine the exact count of Indians who died from disease, they have fairly accurate estimates.

The Renaissance fostered creative thinking and curiosity. As the population slowly increased, economic prosperity created powerful new incentives for exploration and trade. The Europeans were thus pushed to go out and explore in search of items for trade. The trade of plants and animals between the lands greatly affected both cultures. For example, the reintroduction of the Horse to the Native American life made Indians in many tribes dependent on this new creature. Used for hunting, fighting, farming, and so much more, the horse quickly became a staple in Native American culture. Equally dramatic was the effect of American crops, specifically Maize, on European and African societies. This crop revolutionized the diets of both plants and animals. An unintended effect of all the trade was trade of diseases, which drastically reduced the Native American population size. Within fifty years of the first contact, European and African diseases nearly exterminated the native population of Hispaniola and devastated the densely populated Valley of

The colonization of the Americas began in the year of 1492, when Christopher Columbus and his band of explorers arrived off the coast of the Bahamas. This new “discovery” for Europe would have drastic effects not only on the settlers themselves, but on the natives and their environment. It is without a doubt that the appearance of these explorers placed the Indians on a dangerous trajectory. Now, it is currently understood how the colonization of the American continent brought disease, war and ultimately death for many of the natives. Early exploration, conquest and settlement brought about new economies for the Europeans, new religious freedoms, and knowledge of the world and of exploration, producing great benefits for the colonists. Although the settlers did face risks and sometimes death during their conquest, they undoubtedly benefitted from this expansion. The Indians, however, were dealt a different hand. The culture that they had developed and the immense civilizations that had evolved were ultimately destroyed as the spread of epidemics, constant war, and brutal exploitation brought these prosperous and hospitable peoples to their knees.

Culture wasn’t the only thing that the Europeans brought over to the Americas. Along with their customs and rules, came the diseases that the Native American’s have never been exposed to. The Europeans brought many communicable diseases such as small pox and measles which were transmitted to the Native Americans through trade goods or someone infected with them. This quickly annihilated most of the Native American population.

As the Europeans began settling in the Americas, thus began “the exchange of plant and animal species that have ultimately been a widespread benefit to the peoples throughout the globe” (Document 3). The Europeans brought many elements of their own culture, including their native plants and animals. They then introduced these things to the natives of the Americas and also adopted the natives culture into their own. The Europeans introduced different types of skills and jobs. In turn, “the Indian natives have successfully learned all the Spanish trades” (Document 1).

The Columbian Exchange had a major effect on people residing in the United States. Disease was the number one cause of death amongst the other tragedies that came with the Columbian Exchange such as violence, culture, trade, and people that had followed Columbus. Many Native Americans died from diseases that were brought from Europe. The Europeans who had brought the diseases over did not seem to have done it intentionally. The Europeans were just in search of the New World. Native Americans lived free from the terrible diseases that destroyed populations in Asia, Europe, and Africa. Therefore, when Europeans came to America no one knew how to treat the diseases or how to handle them. Native Americans lacked the ability to fight off bacteria

In the 1500s, the Conquistadors came to the new world from Europe. After the Conquistadors came and conquered the new world many Native Americans fell ill with the diseases brought from Europe. After the Europeans entered the new world an estimated 15 to 20 million Native Americans died (doc 5). A majority of these deaths were due to the introduction of smallpox from Europe to the new world (doc 5). This is because the majority of the Native American population did not have the immunity to these diseases as the

We as a world together have been through a lot of changes and made a lot of advances over the past couple of centuries. Many have argued about the outcome of the European expansion on the Americas. Some people feel that the Europeans had both a positive and negative impact on the expansion; however, the negative impact gave a devastating result, which would continue to change history for almost four hundred years. The Europeans were manipulative towards to indigenous people of the Americas. They exploited them, using them as their personal slaves. Most importantly, they silently murdered the Natives by introducing them to diseases such as the measles and smallpox. Consequently, a small pox epidemic was caused, which resulted in the

Leading up to the 1700’s in colonial America there were many themes that defined the time period. One of the most prominent themes is that of death. During this time period many died, both the Native Indians and the Europeans emigrating to America. There were many causes of these deaths, famine, disease, and war were some. The first major contact between the European men and the Native Americans was with the Aztecs and Hernandez Cortés. Cortés used European military technology to conquer the Aztecs. In the process of conquering the Aztecs, Cortés was aided by the introduction of smallpox into the Aztecs ecosystem. With the different goods in the western hemisphere the Columbian exchange was started. One of the items brought over to the new

By the 1700’s, New England, the Chesapeake region and the Southern Colonies developed into three distinct societies, despite coming from the same mother country, England. The regions of Colonial America each had a distinctive culture and economy entirely different from the other regions. Religion and religious tolerance was completely different in each region, running from being free to complete persecution. Ethnicity and racial composition ranged from almost complete British descent to a wide range of composition. Each region was politically and economically structured different and had its own identity. Each developed differently based on immigration trends, geography and other features. Throughout the colonization of Colonial America,

Native Americans and Africans suffered horrendous afflictions due to Christopher Columbus, Spanish settlers, and English settlers. First, Columbus destructively affected Native Americans he met when he travelled back and forth to the Indies between 1492 and 1504. Columbus voyaged to the Indies to find land, to govern the land, and to earn money. Doing so, Columbus cruelly murdered the Indians who missed his quotas of gold, sold them into slavery, and along with other Spanish settlers, unintentionally gave them infectious diseases. Due to the Christopher Columbus and Spanish settlers, the Native Americans suffered forced physical labor, innumerable casualties, and perpetually transformed lives. Second, in 1607, English settlers arrived in Virginia

In the larger centers of highland Mexico and Peru, millions of people died. On some Caribbean islands, the Native American population died out completely, stripping the America much of its culture. When the Europeans were first introduced, the Native people had no natural immune defence against them and thus culminated in lives being lost, cultures being lost and monocultures being acquired. Another effect of the global trade was the promotion of Transatlantic Slave trade. Not many Natives were left to do the labour that the Spaniards were requiring them to do.

One of the worst things that Columbus did in his time in America, was he brought disease. The disease caused death. Nine out of ten people died because of it. Smallpox, measles, mumps, and whooping cough were the diseases that killed most of the people. I got this information from document a.

Historians estimate that as much as 95 percent of the Native American population died within a year of Columbus’s initial contact with the New World, and while there were certainly European acts of genocide against the Native Americans that added to

Historically the treatment of Native Americans has been highly problematic, especially throughout the colonization of the New World. Although, when colonising some Europeans took a merciful and sympathetic approach to the Native Americans, generally the treatment towards the indigenous people was not humane. Not only did the Native Americans die at the hand of the settlers, they also died from diseases that had been brought to the new world by explorers for which they had no immunity. In some cases diseases such as smallpox wiped out entire tribes. Together, the introduction of diseases and the actions of the European settlers had devastating effects on the Native Americans.