Christopher Columbus Dbq

When you think about who discovered the New World you most likely think Christopher Columbus. There is a huge controversy on who truly discovered the New World. Columbus didn’t actually mean to discover the New World, he was trying to avoid blocks so he went the other way and found the New World. A place where the Europeans have never seen. However if Columbus did he led Europe into the Age of Exploration. A time period where finding and owning land was the most important thing. The changes that occurred during the Age of Exploration were both negative and positive; the negatives effects were more profound than the positive affects of the Age of Exploration. For example the middle passage that the enslaved people went through, diseases that

When the Europeans stormed into the New World. They brought diseases with them that the Natives were foreign to. They were rarely sick however when the Europeans came diseases rapidly spread. Diseases such as smallpox, influenza, typhus, measles, malaria, diphtheria, and whooping cough. A very common disease that the Africans and Natives got at the time was smallpox. A virus that spread easily and could be deadly when not treated. In the Age of Exploration time period they didn’t have the technology like we have today to cure such a disease. In documents 2a-b the first part is a statement talking about how the Natives and Africans rarely got sick, its says “ There was no sickness; they had no aching bones; they had then no high fever; they had then no smallpox.” This is showing how before the Europeans all of the diseases and the sicknesses that came with them never occurred in the Natives life. In the document the second portion that follows says, “ There was great havoc. Very many died of it. They could not walk; they only lay in their resting places and beds.” The first and the second part are showing a huge contrast and the impact that the Age of Exploration had on the Native life, and how the Europeans negatively affected the Native Americans and Africans. Furthermore, document 3 talking about the Estimated Native American Population of Mexico (1518-1593) shows that in 1518 at the start of the Age of Exploration the population was 25 million, then in 1533 it was 17.5, next in 1548 when it was about 6, and then gradually decreased. The population started at 25 million and ended approximately at 2 million. This was one of the key reasons why Europe was able to conquer, because they dint have much competition when in battle because they had a large number of people while the Natives had very little. The Age of Exploration negatively impacted the Natives. The