When Worlds Collide The Spanish, French and English employed different strategies for colonizing and converting the New World. The effects on natives and the New World environment mainly affected food and resources, peoples, and religion. The strategies employed by the Spanish, French and English caused differences in how the relationships developed between the peoples of the Old and New Worlds.
When the Spanish arrived to the New World they brought crops of wheat, sugar, rice, and coffee. Europeans also introduced horses, cows and pigs. In turn the Native Americans gifted the Old World with gold, silver, corn, potatoes, tobacco, tomatoes, beans, vanilla and chocolate. The amount of silver in Europe tripled from the introduction of
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Specifically, native populations were afflicted with smallpox, bubonic plague, influenza, scarlet fever, measles and several other diseases. In return the New World gave syphilis. Since the Spanish only brought male soldiers, they procreated with the native Indians. Initially, the Spaniards tried to force the indigenous people into slavery, their customs, religion, and way of life. Eventually, the Spaniards became the best at incorporating the native customs within their own customs, merging two civilizations into a unique new one. The French trappers and soldiers, also male, had a more cooperative relationship with the native peoples, willing to learn from the natives, trade with the natives, and live among the natives. They chose native Indians as their mates and regarded the natives as their trading partners. However, the English tended to bring their own wives and shunned the language, customs, and populations of the native population. Therefore, the English mixed their heritages less than the Spanish and French. As the mixed race children were raised, they inherited not only the genes of two races but the language, laws, and customs of both races, integrating