The early modern era was a time when empires thrived across the globe. The Western Europeans were not the only ones to construct successful empires either. The Russian, Chinese, Mughal, and Ottoman empires added to this phenomenon. Although these empires share many similarities, they also have their differences. During the time, 1450 CE -1750 CE, European empires in the Americas and their Russian, Chinese, Mughal, and Ottoman counterparts are similar in that they all thrived and united diverse peoples and different in that European empires developed something entirely new, an interacting Atlantic World, while the other empires continued older patterns of historical development.
Historians differ on what they think about the net result of the European arrival in the New World. Considering that the Columbian Exchange, which refers to “exchange of plants, animals, people, disease, and culture between Afro-Eurasia and the Americas after Columbus sailed to the Americas in 1492,” led to possibly tens of millions of deaths on the side of the American Indians, but also enabled agricultural and technological trade (Henretta et al. 42), I cannot help but reflect on whether the effects should be addressed as a historical or a moral question. The impact that European contact had on the indigenous populations of North America should be understood as a moral question because first, treating it as a historical question is difficult due to lack of reliable historical evidence; second, the meaning of compelling historical claims is contestable as the academic historian perspective tends to view the American Indian oral history as invalid; and finally, what happened to the native Indians is morally repulsive and must be discussed as such.
Christopher Columbus is a Villain. On some accounts he can be a Hero. But on many other accounts he's a vicious Villain. Yes he discovered America ; Yes we have a holiday that commemorates the landing of Christopher Columbus in the New World on October 12, 1492. But here are some reasons to why he's a evil man.
During the early 1400’s European exploration initiated changes in technology, farming, disease and other cultural things ultimately impacting the Native Americans and Europeans. Throughout Columbus’ voyages, he initiated the global exchange that changed the world. The exchange of plants, animals, and diseases between the Old and New World began soon after Columbus returned to Spain from the Americas. These changes had multiple effects, that were both positive and negative. Although the Columbian Exchange had numerous benefits and drawbacks but the drawbacks outweighs the benefits.
One reason why I think we should not celebrate Columbus day to the extent of a federal holiday is because of the thinking that Columbus was the one who discovered North America. In the article “Leif Erikson” , Leif Eriksson, who was the son of Erik the Red, is said to be the first European to set foot in North America. There are stories about how he truly discovered North America but one story says that he sailed off course on his way back to Greenland and ended up below Greenland in North america. Another story is he heard about the fertile land of North America by an icelandic man who had sailed past it years before so Leif thought it would be a good place to land his ship. This idea of Christopher Columbus truly
Among the many things spread and shared in the Columbian Exchange, the trading of diseases is perhaps the most significant. The natives of the Americas had never experienced the serious diseases that European explorers carried over to the New World. From smallpox to influenza and malaria to cholera, Native American populations were drastically decreased due to their poor immunity. Between the numerous amounts of European diseases, though, measles was the most remarkable in that its effects were both widespread and enduring.
The benefits did outweigh the consequences. To start off, I have three topics to support/back up my conclusion that the benefits did outweigh the consequences.
The Columbian Exchange, also known as The Great Exchange, is one of the most significant events in the history of world. The term is used to describe the widespread exchange of foods, animals, human populations (including slaves),plants, diseases, and ideas from the New world and the old. this occurred after 1492. Many goods were exchanged between and it started a revolution in the Americas, Africa and in Europe. The exchange got its name when Christopher Columbus voyage started an era of a tremendous amount of exchange between the New and Old World that resulted in this revolution. The Columbian Exchange impacted almost every civilization in the world bringing fatal diseases that depopulated many cultures. However a wide variety of new crops
The Columbian exchange was obviously a huge part of American history, and had huge impacts for both the European colonists and the Native Americans. The appearance of the colonists had both negative and positive effects on the native people, while the native people as well created benefits and setbacks for the Europeans. Diseases such as smallpox, influenza, and malaria killed many Native Americans. The natives immune systems were not strong enough to handle them. The Europeans were also affected by disease, as they had never been exposed to some illnesses that the Native Americans passed on to them, such as syphilis. The diseases were the most negative side effects of the Columbian exchange. However, there were also some positive things that
The Columbian Exchange was “the transfer of plants, animals, and diseases from the Old World to the New and the New World to the Old (Von Sivers, Desnoyers, & Stow, 2012, p. 618)”. The Columbian Exchange improved and hindered the lives of the Europeans and Native Americans.
The Columbian Exchange was the transfer of ideas, animals, plants to new places to look more familiar, specifically related to European colonization after Columbus; from the Old World to the New World. Invasive species such as earthworms didnt exist before the Columbian exchange; palnts like dandelions didn't exist either. The byproduct of this exchange was the mixing of cultures through food and animals that would forever change the landscape that people know so much about certain areas, such as oranges in Florida, or tomatoes in Italy.
On October 12, 1492, an Italian merchant by the name of Christopher Columbus landed on an island in the New World. With him he brought three ships and a small crew of Spaniards. After exploring other islands, Columbus came one that he called Hispaniola; here, they found seemingly primitive and naϊve natives that they immediately began to take advantage of. However, little did they know that this first meeting would bring exploration of South and Central America that would wreak havok among the Natives. Throughout the period of European Expansion, Natives were ripped from their home and forced to work day in and day out. Almost every single person from the New World, whether a slave or not, was seriously impacted by the spread of diseases.Furthermore,
Bartolome de las Casas is used by Zinn for many of the sources of the cruelty against the natives, but even Zinn admits that "his figures are exaggerations"(). However, Zinn still puts Bartolome under much less criticism than Columbus even though the priest did his share in being cruel to natives; this was most likely because he wanted to make the point that Columbus should not be so heroized. Overall, the monarchy of Europe is truly to blame for sending the greediest men with orders only to extract wealth from the New World. Whether or not America should celebrate Columbus Day is a highly debatable topic, but it should not really be celebrated or called after a relatively cruel man. Columbus just happened to be in charge of the right ship with a gamble that turned out to make him extremely successful, but he did not have anything, besides good seamanship to make him any more exciting than the average
The Europeans were able to conquer the Americas because even though it was by “accident,” they were still more prepared for what was to come. Jared Diamond calls the European “accidental conquerors.” Diamond calls his theory geographical luck and concludes that the only way the Europeans were able to dominate the Americas was because of the way the ocean patterns happened to flow. The geographical wind patterns caused the ships to sail towards the Incas and the Aztecs and when the Europeans arrived they tried to conquer the Aztecs and Incas, they succeed for a number of reasons.
The most important historical impact of the Columbian Exchange is human because they are the first to form settlement on the native land. According to Mr. Johnson 's history slide shows Columbus sailing from Spain wanting to trade with India, however traveled to another route instead. Once he arrived to the new land he greeted with the indian tribe and convince them to trade with him. In the first Columbus video shows Columbus was a nice person who tries to negotiate with the indians, however the indian rebelled and caused destruction. The European in Columbus group dominated over the indians and used them for slavery.