“The greatest genocide in the history of man”. The age of exploration was a great period of time for man, but usually we forget to look at the other points. Yes there was a economic boom and there were new continents discovered. But we forget the other points that also happened during the age of exploration, for example the slave trade started, and also the cattles that were brought were the start of epidemics and lastly natives were forced to change their whole culture. During the age of exploration there was a lot of slavery going on, and we see this happening with the native Americans. According to document 6 the spanish landowners forced the native Americans to mine and work on their lands. Thousands of native americans died from the overwork and harsh treatment. The natives were also only allowed to live in certain areas, but the native americans still had to pay for the areas they lived in. Also according to document 8, the natives started to convert into Christians, they were not forced to work, but the spaniards didn’t want to do work, so they started to enslave africans. That started the slave trade. Therefore they should not be celebrated because they have enslaved native …show more content…
According to document 3 it does say that bringing cattles was beneficial for the people, however document 4 states that before Columbus arrived the population of the New world was 40 to 50 million people, but after Columbus arrived the population died within decades. For example in Mexico alone the population dropped from 30 million to about 3 million, these people died because of the germs that came with the cattles that were supposed to be beneficial. Also according to document 2, after the spaniards fled there was a huge plague that broke out killing a vast number of