European Exploration Effects

David Jones realizes their immune systems were weak, and he presents the question why: is it possibly because they were malnourished, exhausted, and stressed out due to Europeans? He speaks in detail about Indians being defenseless to pathogens, through homogeneity, and how their fates depended on their entire environment. Combined with their vulnerability, “it could well be [assessed] that the epidemics among American Indians, despite their unusual severity, were caused by the same forces of poverty, social stress, and environmental vulnerability that cause epidemics in all other times and

As a result, the Americans and their possibly their descendants, enjoyed freedom from most of the infectious diseases that plagued populations. Surprisingly people who resided in Africa and Eurasia were not susceptible to these diseases because they had lived among those populations. However, the same cannot be said for the Native Americans. They had no such immunities. Adults and children alike were afflicted by wave after wave of viruses, which produced a drastic decrease in population.

The Native American’s were the first known settlers in North America, ten thousand years before Columbus came to the continent. Their origins completely unclear, anthropologists believe there were three to five million Native Americans in North America in the year 1492 (Hoxie and Iverson, 1997). As early as the Revolutionary War in 1775, European settlers started taking note of the Native Americans. Unfortunately, the Native American population plunged significantly in the first decades after their first contact with Europeans. Native Americans were now unprotected and exposed to deadly diseases like smallpox, influenza, and measles which did not previously exist in their society (North American Natives, 2016).

However, the Native Americans didn’t just use these resources they garnered solely for food - they used the resources in several aspects of their lives, specifically for health. The Native Americans were dependant on the use of plants and other resources found in nature to use for curatives. Historians often attest that these curatives were far superior to the ones that Europeans used, and thus the span of life for Native Americans was often longer than that of the European people (The People). However, upon Native American and European contact, the Europeans introduced new, foreign diseases that were deadly because the Native Americans had never been exposed to these diseases, and thus did not have natural immunities to them. This was the same for other infectious diseases introduced to the Europeans, namely syphilis. Although, the amount of Europeans affected by syphilis was not even near the amount of Native Americans killed by some of the European diseases brought over in the Columbian exchange. Bartolomé de Las Casas commented on the epidemic of European viruses that killed thousands of Native Americans: “Who of those in

Spanish Colonization- Beginning with the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1492 Spanish Colonization continued for centuries. The Spanish Empire eventually would include half of South America, most of Central America, and a lot of North America. The Spanish used the Encomienda System to control and use Native Americans. Spaniards received grants of Native Americans from the Spanish government who they could take tribute from in the form of goods or labor as long as they tried to convert the Native Americans to Catholicism. This system worked out horribly for the Native Americans with many treated harshly and forced to do hard physical labor. The Natives were not willing slaves though and rebelled numerous times which contributed to African slave labor replacing the Encomienda System. The Spanish intermarried with the Native Americans leading

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.

Native Americans never came in contact with diseases that developed in the Old World because they were separated from Asia, Africa, and Europe when ocean levels rose following the end of the last Ice Age. Diseases like smallpox, measles, pneumonia, influenza, and malaria were unknown to

Discovering this new world definitely caught the Europeans off guard but the Europeans took advantage and handled the changed really

*The inclusion of the New World in the Age of Exploration brought benefit to the europeans and spaniards in the form of goods, land, and trade, but brought damaging effects to the Native Americans and African slaves.

In my opinion, the benefits of the European exploration did not outweigh its consequences. One reason why the benefits did not outweigh the consequences is the Native American population. Another reason the benefits did not outweigh is because of the Columbian Exchange. Columbus also did not stand up to his promises. Those are some of the reasons why the benefits did not outweigh the consequences.

Prior to the European invasion into the Native American culture, Native Americans did not have to worry about deadly diseases (Brands 5). On page 5 of the reading, it says, "Although Native Americans experienced illnesses such as tuberculosis, they no longer suffered the major epidemics that under normal conditions would have killed much of their population every year" (Brands 5). Clearly, due to the rarity of major diseases spreading within the Native American lands, Native Americans themselves would be unable to manage any kind of potential epidemic that may arise. Consequently, by the time Europe had invaded what later to be was called America, many deadly diseases began to spread, and these diseases affected the Native American population

Impacts of European expansion reached across the world and affected more than the expanding European powers and their colonies in the new world. Life in the world changed when these two cultures that were directly opposite of one another collided. Europe was filled with greed for resources and wealth, the Indigenous people living on these resources were living a simple sustainable life with next to no government or regulation. Once the new world was set up Europeans who ran these new territories called colonists today developed their own society and way of living and would end up revolting against the homeland.

An enormous number of Native Americans passed on from European diseases, particularly smallpox, to which they had no

By the late 1400’s into the 1500’s, European countries began to expand into the rest of the world. This resurgence of trade interest resulted in a demand for foreign goods and exploration of water routes. This Age of Exploration united the Americas with Europe, Asia, and Africa. The exchanges were plentiful and stabilizing for many communities. However, along with the positive influences, came the negative aspects, which impacted cultures and civilizations around the world. European exploration changed travel, trade, health, religion, language, architecture, the economy, and humanity. It is this author’s position that the positive influences and contributions have had a greater impact on growth and development globally than the challenges presented. Historically, the Age of Exploration shaped the world as we know it today.

The Encounter, a period or age of exploration, impacted Europe economically by providing them wealth. During the 15th century, Europeans wanted to find an oceanic route to places in Asia, such as India and China. This is mainly because they wanted goods from them and getting goods from their origin was cheaper than getting from neighboring empires, who would sell these goods for higher prices to make profit. The purpose of the idea of exploration was for gold, glory and god. Columbus, an italian explorer, tried persuading European empires to sponsor his for a trip to Asia and in return, he would bring them gold. Many kings denied Columbus while the king of Spain was interested in his idea and sponsored him. As a result of the expedition, Columbus found the Americas, which he believed was the Indies and created a trading relationship between the Americas and Europe. New raw materials like tobacco and potatoes were introduced to Europe. Europe in return, provided the Tainos, native people who lived in the Americas, goods and diseases. These diseases rapidly spread in the Americas and the native people couldn’t cure these diseases because they never encounter these diseases before the Europeans came and thus, their population decreased by millions. After the vast decrease in native population, Europeans needed workers in the New world to