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Transcontinental Exchange Effects

718 Words3 Pages

Claim: They may have been exploring in search for wealth, slaves and land, but European explorers participating in the transfer of humans in the early 1500s also shaped new identities by stripping natives of their ways of life and introducing those ideas into the new world, as well as acting in ways that caused many indigenous people to live in fear.

The transcontinental exchange of slaves had both negative and positive effects on people 's’ identities, because although it robbed the slaves of their past lives, the movement of slaves also spread new cultural ideas to the Americas. “In Africa, numerous cultures lost generations of their fittest members - their young and able - to European traders and plantation owners. In addition, countless …show more content…

“The Spanish had the advantage of superior weaponry. Aztec arrows were no match for the Spaniards’ muskets and cannons” (McDougal 556). In their area, the Aztec civilization had a reputation of successful rulers, and handmade yet powerful weapons. Even so, Spanish conquistadors were able to beat them without much effort because of their advanced weaponry. Any survivors were forced to live in fear of others coming from Europe and killing them with manufactured weaponry. Though they once felt powerful as a group, they knew there could be many other much stronger civilizations further away to be fearful of. But there was one other factor that resulted in the Spaniards’’ victory over the Aztecs. “The natives could do little to stop the invisible warrior that marched alongside the Spaniards - disease. Measles, mumps, smallpox, and typhus were just some of the diseases Europeans were to bring with them to the Americas” (McDougal 556). Because of their lack of immunity to the diseases brought over by the Europeans, hundreds of thousands of Aztecs and other native Americans died. All kinds of diseases spread throughout the villages like wildfires and the rare few who weren’t affected not only had to fear for those they knew who were sick, but also for themselves and the possibility of them catching any one of the many diseases drifting around. The dilemma of feeling the need to care for their family and friends who were ill but also being nervous of that result in them falling victim to the deadly illnesses as well was an overwhelming fear that circulated the minds of many citizens. All in all, any survivors during the Europeans’ invasion into the Americas were

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