Christopher Columbus was a European explorer initially searching for a sea route that would lead him to Asia. He eventually came upon the Native Americans in 1492. This discovery would alter the very course of history during and after his discovery, not just for Europeans and Natives, but for the entire world. Societies set up by the Spanish on Native lands were based on greed, racism, and exploitation of the Native Americans and their precious resources. They did not wish to understand or be friendly with the Natives. Instead, the Spanish explorers wanted to claim the newly found lands for Spain and to return the good news back to his investors back home, Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain. Around 1494, Columbus wasn't effectively able to govern and Christianize the Natives in Hispaniola, so …show more content…
To quote my U.S. History 101 book: "In Peru, the population of 9 million in 1530 plummeted to fewer than 500,000 a century later. Mesoamerica suffered the greatest losses: In one of the great demographic disasters in world history, its population of 30 million Native Americans in 1500 had dwindled to just 3 million in 1650" (America's History, pp. 30). These acts of genocide were evil in the purest sense of the word and without a doubt altered history among 4 continents. The process of Spanish conquest changed the demographics of many peoples, their economics, and environmental resources on America (New World), Europe, Asia, and even Africa, which was later named by historians as the Columbian Exchange. Christopher Columbus's initial voyages to the New World, following conquests of Native Americans, and the Columbian Exchange all led to "the harsh collision among the peoples of three old worlds-European, African, and Native American-that had created a new Atlantic world" (America's History, pp.