Negative Effects Of American Exploration

The Age of Exploration spread many ideas and knowledge through cultural diffusion to new lands. With the discovery of the Americas, new lands were conquered and religions like Christianity found new followers. While there are many positive aspects of the Age of Exploration, it was a bad thing for others. In the sixteenth century the Europeans had a positive or negative effect on Europe, Africa and the Americas The Europeans affected European culture in an unsurprisingly good way. As depicted in Doc 8, while they did lose half of their ships they came back with a huge profit in spices.

The Natives in the New World benefited greatly from the Columbian Exchange. One of the biggest areas the Europeans impacted was the Natives agriculture. Many crops came to the New World, which gave the natives some food sources, but the majority of new food sources came from the livestock brought by the Europeans. They brought animals including pigs, cows, horses, and more. Not only did they bring new animals and crops, they also introduced new technologies to the Natives. These technologies included new tools, firearms and weapons, which advanced all aspects of the Natives culture. As beneficial as these were there were also several drawbacks the Old World had on the New World during the Columbian Exchange.

The European explorers began the exchange of plant and animal species. In William and Jackson’s writing, they explained how the Europeans helped to increase the food production in America. (Doc #3) This document states, “… cultivation of corn, manioc, and the potato … a process that ultimately brought benefits…” in the Americas. This process was known as the Columbian Exchange. It had an effect on the Eastern and Western Hemisphere. Furthermore, the Columbian Exchange had both good and bad effects on the world. Although it helped increase exchange, it caused many diseases to spread and kill many people.

Some Europeans had positive views about globalization in the New World. One positive effect was the great amount of profit resources in America brought to Europe. While exploring the New World, the Spanish discovered resources such as sugar and tobacco.

Another harmful effect that was caused by European exploration was diseases brought into the New World. “Hit by wave after wave of multiple diseases to which they had utterly no resistance , they died by the the millions” (Document 2 , from Disease and Catastrophe by David Walbert). This quote shows that Europeans brought disease to the New World. European explorers already have immunity to the disease but Natives did not. Document 6, supports Document 2 in which exploration was a negative effect by diseases being brought into the New World.

There was many negative effects that caused great amounts of problems. The main problem there was exchanging from the Americas to Europe was diseases was passed on and spread. The Europeans brought over diseases from the Old to New World. The Old World had a past history of disease, so they were more immune to disease. The Old World had “domesticated” animals, so that is probably

Europeans brought with them diseases that were foreign to indigenous populations and animals that had negative effects on the surrounding landscapes. Diseases such as smallpox, the plague, and typhus were common in past European society, causing the populations to eventually build up an immunity and resistance against these diseases. However, these diseases were unknown to indigenous populations, causing there to be no resistance, ultimately resulting in disastrous consequences. 90% of the indigenous population, equaling around 80 to 100 million people, were killed because of these diseases. European animals and livestock were also brought over to the new world, animals like horses and pigs helped indigenous societies by means of transportation and food source.

The main motivation of European exploration was economic motives. People were beginning to become more interested in traveling by sea to reach Asia and Africa and all their riches(Duiker,494). The spice trade was what linked Europe to Asia, and the gold trade linked Europe to Africa. Furthermore, in the 15th and 16th centuries, as the economy and purchasing power of Europe developed and increased, the spice demand grew at a steady rate(Arnold,12). Therefore, spices were one of the few things that made overseas trade possible. Europe did not have very much gold to begin with, so ultimately the gold mines that they did possess were emptied. After 1400, Europe started trading with the areas that produced gold, increasing their amount of gold. Gold was very important to Europe, because not only was it used for decorations, but also their currency. In 1500, Portugal was controlling the flow of gold to Europe, making Portugal much wealthier(Buckler,500). Eventually, slaves were included in the gold

The European conquest of America began as an offshoot of the quest for a sea route to India, China, and the islands of the East Indies, the source of the silk, tea, spices, porcelain, and other luxury goods on which international trade in the early modern era centered. Profit and piety-the desire to eliminate Islamic middlemen and win control of the lucrative trade for Christian Western Europe-combined to inspire the quest for a direct route to Asia. Long before Columbus sailed, Europeans had dreamed of a land of abundance, riches, and ease beyond the western horizon. They hoped America would bring them a

Europeans brought to the Americas catastrophic diseases that killed millions and decimated native populations, who possessed no immunity to the illnesses. The Europeans also had deliberate policies of subjugation and extermination, by which they brutally tortured or murdered natives due to the Europeans ' history of brutality in war and their consideration of the natives as no more than savages. The Europeans also introduced some beneficial elements. These included important crops such as sugar and bananas, domestic livestock such as cattle and pigs, and the horse. They also taught the natives the Spanish and Portuguese languages, though the natives came to create a large number of dialects that mixed elements of their own language with that of the new Europeans.

- Because Spain and Portugal were rivals, they were always trying to out beat each other. Since the Portuguese set up trading posts in Africa first, other European countries started and later on Spain set up posts too. Because the Portuguese didn’t like taking water routes, it took them longer to get to India through land to get spices and jewels. While this was happening, the Spanish people became unified and seeing that they were now stronger, planned to outstrip their rivals of the Indian

Illnesses such as smallpox killed the majority of Native American populations significantly weakening the Naive Americans allowing for Europeans to more easily conquer them. The transfer of crops from the Americas to Europe allowed for a more population growth and shaped their cuisine to this day. Potatoes and native to the Americas yet they are and were a staple of European diets, most notably the Irish. European discovery of resources in the Americas led to millions of African slaves being shipped to the Americas to work in mines or plantations. This widespread slave trade has influences race relations to this day.

Westward Expansion caused many problems, but without westward expansion we wouldn’t have a lot of the land or culture we have today. Westward Expansion may have almost destroyed America, but it did give the U.S more land and it lead to many other historical events. Without moving into other Nations territories we wouldn’t have the America we have today.

Europeans explored and settled in the Americas all throughout the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries, and were generally successful. Although there were a number of factors that contributed to European successes in the New World, biological exchange was foremost. Biological exchange was the most significant force behind Europeans’ success in the Americas because it helped Europeans to wipe out Native American peoples, both physically and culturally, and to introduce European practices and resources that would help Europeans to flourish in the New World.

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