As a large sum of Americans joyfully anticipate the Columbus Day celebrations, some do not realize the fact that they have fallen prey to celebrating a mass destruction of an innocent and diverse multitude of humanity. This significant harm to people was largely due to the Columbian Exchange. The event describes the mutual exchange of plants, animals, goods and diseases between Europe and Asia. The Columbian Exchange occurred following Christopher Columbus’s discovery in 1492 of the New World, which was the newly discovered areas of North and South America in late 1400s to early 1500s. He coined the term “Indians” to name the native population. To achieve his initial goals, Columbus implemented any means, destructive or beneficial, disregarding …show more content…
As per Howard Zinn’s assertion, “ They[Columbus and his men] had to fill up the ships with something, so in 1495 they went on a great slave raid (Zinn, 5).” In other words, because Columbus couldn’t find gold to fill his ships, he used the natives as slaves to load his ship with “goods.” His initial intent for wealth changed to his intent to exploit the Natives. Zinn furthermore states “Two hundred slaves [out of 500] died on the voyage to Spain. Too many died in captivity (Zinn, 5)”. His statement further confirms that slavery was practiced to an extent such that hundreds died. Such statements suggest that the introduction of slavery was a negative effect of the Columbian Exchange because it caused the Americans to be torn apart from their families resulting in a loss of their unique tradition and …show more content…
As per an account from Bartolome de las Casas, a Spanish priest, the Spanish used of 2000 soldiers, 20 cavalry, “terrible” weaponry, and 20 hunting dogs to execute the Indians (de las Casas, 9). The foreign explorers resorted to killing the natives when they would not comply with the explorers demands, often for goods or riches, or give up their land. Casas further emphasizes his claim writing,”In this way, husbands died in the mines, wives died at work, and children died from lack of milk (de las Casas, 8).” Because the Spanish had an insatiable desire for gold to fill their ships, they often times put the natives to harsh work resulting in death of husbands, wives, and their children. Additionally, the Spanish hunted down the Arawaks and hanged or burned them to death if they could not provide gold to the explorers. Because of the lack of gold they could find, many Arawaks began to commit suicide in multitudes with poison (Zinn, 12). That is to say, in order to keep the Columbian exchange running, the Spanish were desperate to find gold. Consequently, when the Arawaks were unable to find gold, the Spaniards killed the natives resulting in numerous fatalities. Stemming from foreigner’s desires to gather goods to fuel the Columbian Exchange, this event negatively influenced the Americas as many natives who had valuable
The Columbian Exchange was the exchange of goods animals and plants from one country to another. The Columbian Exchange had many impacts. Some of them can still be seen today. One example is introduction of new species. Another is the slave trade that happened.
6. Columbian exchange was the exchange of animals, crops and some resources between the New and Old world. During the Columbian exchange the European brought diseases to Native Americans and it a killed a lot of people. These included Tuberculosis, measles, cholera, typhus, and smallpox. In all the exchanges between the Native Americans and the Europeans, diseases had the most impact.
The major consequence of Columbus’ voyages was the Columbus Exchange. The Columbus Exchange changed the course of history between the two practically separate worlds. The Old World and the Americas were very different from other. Each one of them had vastly disparate foods, diseases, and animals. Once Columbus “discovered” the Americas an exchange between the New World and Old World began.
The detail that i got is that columbus enacted policy of forced labor in which native were put to work for the sake of profits. He did a lot of bad things & he treated people wrong why would we celebrate somebody that treat everybody like they trash. According to the text on his first day in the new world ,he ordered six of the natives to be seized,writing in his
“ It should be kept in mind that their insatiable greed and ambition, the greatest ever seen in the world, is the cause of their villainies.” (Las Casas) The people of Spain used murder and slavery as a means to depopulate the Islands due to their greed. According to Casas, the number of slain Indians is about 15 million in the fourty years that the Spaniards have intruded on the Natives land. Young men and rulers were killed, while women and young children were forced to be slaves to the Christians.
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. The consequences of European contact should be answered as a moral question because historically, it is hard to be historically objective in the absence of valid and dependable historical evidence.
The Columbian Exchange is a crucial part of history without which the world as we know it today would be a very different place. Its effects were rapid, global, dramatic, and permanent. It caused the entire world’s biographic, demographic, cultural, and economic standards to change, though whether that change was for better or worse is debatable. In 1453, Constantinople had fallen to the Ottoman Turks, leaving European countries to try to find an Atlantic route by which they could trade with the orient.
During the late 1400s and the early 1500s, European expeditioners began to explore the New World. Native Americans, who were living in America originally, were much different than the Europeans arriving at the New World; they had a different culture, diet, and religion. Eventually, both the Native Americans and the European colonists exchanged different aspects of their life. For example, Native Americans gave the Europeans corn, and the Europeans in return gave them modern weapons, such as various types of guns. This type of trade was called “the Columbian Exchange.”
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.
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 new world brought new kind of food and products to the old world. However, there was negative impact of starting slavery. 3. The author defends his/her thesis by providing
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.
The Columbian Exchange refers to the monumental transfer of goods such as: ideas, foods, animals, religions, cultures, and even diseases between Afroeurasia and the Americas after Christopher Columbus’ voyage in 1492. The significance of the Columbian Exchange is that it created a lasting tie between the Old and New Worlds that established globalization and reshaped history itself (Garcia, Columbian Exchange). Worlds that had been separated by vast oceans for years began to merge and transform the life on both sides of the Atlantic (The Effects of the Columbian Exchange). This massive exchange of goods gave rise to social, political, and economic developments that dramatically impacted the world (Garcia, Columbian Exchange). During this time,
The Europeans gave the Native American both positive and negative things. The positive things were: wheat, sugar, rice, coffee, horses, cows, and pigs. The negative things were: smallpox, measles, bubonic plague, influenza, typhus, diphtheria, and scarlet flower. Then, god, glory, and god. The Spanish came for god, glory, and gold.
“Columbus, the Indians, and Human Progress”, chapter one of “A People’s History of the United States”, written by professor and historian Howard Zinn, concentrates on a different perspective of major events in American history. It begins with the native Bahamian tribe of Arawaks welcoming the Spanish to their shores with gifts and kindness, only then for the reader to be disturbed by a log from Columbus himself – “They willingly traded everything they owned… They would make fine servants… With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want.” (Zinn pg.1) In the work, Zinn continues explaining the unnecessary evils Columbus and his men committed unto the unsuspecting natives.