Christopher Columbus Benefits

Columbus is famed with “discovering” the Americas, but all he really did was bring the land to the attention of the Europeans leading to a takeover of already inhabited land. This discovery was highly beneficial to the Europeans, not so much to the Native Americans or African people. Nonetheless, this discovery paved the way for the world today. Different Europeans saw he Americas as different things: a way to gain money, a new place to live, a place to escape their country’s ridiculous rules. When European settlers began to move to the Americas, the Natives helped them. They taught the Europeans how to fish and properly grow crops. The Natives traded with the Europeans. Each group was introduced to new plants and animals. The European explorers got rich off of the foreign things they brought back to their homes. Lots of people moved to the Americas and lived a better life than what they would’ve had if they stayed in Europe. These were all pleasant events that took place between the Europeans and the Natives. There were many other interactions that weren’t as cheerful as these. The Europeans brought over new diseases that the Natives had never been exposed to.

The Europeans needed a new source of people to do their dirty work. They turned to Africa and kidnapped tons of people to be put into the slave trade. Though the slave trade had been around for a while, the American’s need for slaves made the whole trade explode with activity. Like the natives, the Africans were another group of people the Europeans thought were less than them. Because of their sense of entitlement, the Europeans thought it was perfectly fine to treat Africans worse than animals. Slaves had to work long hours on almost empty stomachs. After working they had to return to a small hut shared by multiple people. Most people despised Africans. Even after slavery was abolished, the harsh treatment towards those of African descent