Exploration and Effects on Native Americans

Exploration and Effects on Native Americans

European explorers first landed in the late 1400s on the shores of what is presently North America. According to historians, what motivated European exploration was religion, glory, and hunt for precious metals. The religious motivation is evident in the way European Christians spread the word of God by organizing crusades and religious battles that sought to make Jerusalem a religious place. They also had the desire to possess the holy lands, and that is why they had a war of violence against Muslims. The Europeans traced trade paths to the Asian markets hoping to acquire global recognition for the state. The crusades that European explorers introduced, enhanced the maritime trade. As the crusaders came into contact with spices, silk, and porcelain, the demand for the products generated fresh markets for traders. The main problem that the European explorers had while transporting products was the robbers and Muslim middlemen (“Motivation for European Conquest of the New World (article),” n.d.). Also, the Muslim rulers took advantage of European explorers by not telling them where the Spice Islands were, and this forced the explorers to find new routes to the Spice Island as well as disregard the Muslim middlemen.

When the Europeans crossed the Atlantic, they came with animals, diseases, and plants. The exchange of products between Europeans and Americans was known as the Columbian Exchange. One of the economic impacts of the exploration based on the Columbian exchange was the alteration in the type of agricultural products, the type of foods eaten by the two states together with the globe’s economic development pattern. The European explorers gained more wealth from the trade of products, spices, and valuable metals. Although the explorers brought new plants, it led to the demand of African slaves for labor, and the diseases they brought, depopulated many people.

The Native Americans were affected by the diseases brought by the European explorers since their immune system proved weak to handle the diseases. The exploration caused the Native Americans to lose their lands, and also the laws enacted interfered with their culture (“American Psychological Association,” 2020).

The Europeans are accountable for bringing diseases to the Americans. According to statistics, the diseases brought by explorers reduced the population of the Native Americans since they were immunologically weak. Before the Europeans exploration, the Americans lived in a disease-free surroundings. According to the demographer and historian Nobel David Cook, the diseases brought by the explorers caused a loss of roughly 80 percent of the population for the least affected religions and a full loss to the highest affected regions (Cook 1998).

References

American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.).

Cook, Noble David. (1998). Born to Die: Disease and New World Conquest, 1492–1650. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Motivation for European Conquest of the New World (article). (n.d.). Khan Academy. https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/us-history/precontact-and-early-colonial-era/old-and-new-worlds-collide/a/motivations-for-conquest-of-the-new-world