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Transcontinental Exchange Effects

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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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In 1519, Hernándo Cortés, a Spanish Conquistador ventured into Tenochtitlan, the capital of Aztec empire, searching for gold and glory. He set out to conquer the empire and to capture the Aztecs in order to achieve his ambitions. Moctezuma, the highly respected leader of the mighty Aztec Empire, came confronting with Hernán Cortés, the leader of a small band of professional European soldiers from a huge island that lay six day’s sail to the east. In “Malintzin’s Choices: An Indian Women in the Conquest of Mexico” and “Mexico and the Spanish Conquest”, Camilla Townsend and Ross Hassig respectively present one histories in their own interpretations of the conquest of Mexico.

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On May 22, Hernan Cortes and his military forces stormed the great Aztec city, Tenochtitlan. Hernan Cotes did this for gold, God, and glory. The Aztecs were fighting a losing battle that only lasted 93 days before defeat, in total it is estimated that only 100 Spaniards lost their lives, but 100,000 Aztecs lost their lives. Therefore, Spanish military technology severely affected the fall of the Aztec civilisation because the Aztecs didn’t have advanced Military technology as the Spanish did like advanced ships, armour, weapons, and tactics.

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296 Words | 2 Pages

The author of Broken Spears tries to emphasize the fact that the it was not only the Spanish who played a role in the collapse of the Aztecs. One of the most prime reasons the Spanish were victorious was because they were worshiped and viewed as gods due to their presentation. With this to their advantage, the Spanish took leverage over the Aztecs. The Aztecs welcomed the Spanish with offerings and celebration, this gave the Spanish the idea that they had control over them and began to gather this power into ideas to take over their people. The Aztecs had a tremendous cultural difference from the Spanish when it came to their ritual ceremonies, they included a human sacrifice in their ritual and this repulsed the Spanish.

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407 Words | 2 Pages

On October 12, 1492, an Italian merchant by the name of Christopher Columbus landed on an island in the New World. With him he brought three ships and a small crew of Spaniards. After exploring other islands, Columbus came one that he called Hispaniola; here, they found seemingly primitive and naϊve natives that they immediately began to take advantage of. However, little did they know that this first meeting would bring exploration of South and Central America that would wreak havok among the Natives. Throughout the period of European Expansion, Natives were ripped from their home and forced to work day in and day out.

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503 Words | 3 Pages

The thing that really sticks out there is the guns granting the spanish a ranged advantage and the only thing that the aztecs could compensate for this would be bows. With this advantage the aztecs had no real way to capture and conserve someone for the

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961 Words | 4 Pages

In the Age of Exploration, the Columbian Exchange was created between Europe and the Americas as a massive exchange of plants, animals, and diseases. In document 2, the Columbian Exchange is depicted, and a main part of it shows how many diseases– smallpox, measles, and typhus– were brought by Europe to the Americas. In The Broken Spears: The Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico, Miguel Léon-Portilla claims that diseases struck "everywhere in the city and kill[ed] a vast number of... people" (Document 7). The illnesses caused many sores to appear on peoples' faces and bodies. Some people could not walk or move as they were helpless and cried in agony.

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464 Words | 2 Pages

Europeans had grown immune to diseases such as smallpox over the course of history; However, the Native Americans had never experienced such disease thus leading to thousands of Native Americans to die from disease. This gave the Spaniards an upper hand in battle. Though many native americans did die due to disease, the people that survived those diseases were more immune and had stronger genes, leading them to pass those genes onto their children, ultimately creating an immunity to the diseases. This immunity allowed Native Americans to come into contact with Europeans, opening up opportunities for communication, exchange of goods, and trade. Furthermore, this lead to the old world and new world becoming one world, with culture and goods from the Americas and Eurasia creating a well-rounded assortment of

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573 Words | 3 Pages

The Aztec leader Montecuhzoma was a poor leader, he wasn’t concerned about the wellbeing of his people. In Broken Spears, readers will see that the Spaniards use nearby tribes to take over the Aztecs land, the Spaniards killed men, women and children. When the Aztecs hear about what the Spaniards have done they become furious and plan to retaliate but are quickly stopped by the diseases brought by the Spaniards. The Aztecs are exposed to small pox and measles but the Spaniards were unaffected by the diseases because they are well known in Europe and they are exposed to diseases

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262 Words | 2 Pages

Disease was the most significant factor the conquering of Native America by colonial forces. Alvarex supports his argument by comparing the Aztec Empire and the collapse of the

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981 Words | 4 Pages

Benjamin W. Labaree’s article, The Atlantic Paradox, discusses in detail the results of Columbus’ contact, turning the great bridge of the Atlantic into a connection to the New World. The Columbian Exchange, which was the transfer of animal, plants, and diseases between the continents, also mixed cultures and ideas together as well. Even though American natives lost more than they gained when their western boundary failed them, they still benefited in some ways through trade, such as the use of Spanish horses to hunt buffalos, a much more effective way for the Plains Indians. The contact, however, triggered a decimation of Native populations, not necessarily from violence, but from a lack of immunity to European diseases. In this way, the Atlantic moat actually caused more harm than good for Native Americans, by being cut off from the rest of the world for so long, their immune systems could not defend themselves from the diseases that Europeans brought over with them.

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407 Words | 2 Pages

After they would conquer the neighbouring states, they would add men from these sates to their army, however the captives from these states would be used as blood sacrifices for the gods. This angered the other tribes; constant rebellions were waged. Another key factor contributing to the fall of the Aztecs was the technology disadvantages against the Spanish. While they outnumbered the Spanish, their weapons were no match, the Spanish had guns and cannons and wore metal armour while the Aztecs carried wooden shields covered in animal hide and fought with macuahuitl (bladed clubs). The technological gap greatly crippled the Aztecs chance of

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993 Words | 4 Pages

Though at first, the Spanish were reluctant, they soon realized that it was imperative to try to heal the sick as their own survival depended on it. Estebanico describes that “the cures we performed may not have healed everyone we attended, but I can vouch that they saved four lives: our own” (Lalami 232). The interactions between castaways and the Indians were substantial in challenging the common European perspective of the Indians as “inferior savages”. Though the conquistadors in the novel were initially wary of the Indians, they later realized that their ways were crucial to

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1187 Words | 5 Pages

These differences were also smaller details under the larger ideas of barbarianism, new cultures, and the even bigger idea of inhumanity. The Spanish saw the Native Americans as slaves because they showed to be hard laborers and gave into the Spanish power. The Native Americans had a natural knack for manual tasks, so much that most Spaniards compared them to insects because both insects and Native Americans could do certain tasks that normal humans, such as high class Spaniards, could not. The Spaniards would never do such work as they believed that work was meant for slaves. When the Spanish took over the Aztec capital city, Sepúlveda remarks of how the Native Americans were “oppressed and fearful at the beginning.”

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975 Words | 4 Pages

Using war equipment that the Aztec had never seen before and different battle techniques, Cortes and his men were able to quickly and effectively conquer Tenochtitlan. During battle against the Aztecs, animals from Spain that served in many battles called horses (about twelve), as well as swords and crossbows (a much more advanced version of the Aztec war club and spear-thrower) were labelled as advanced technology as they were quicker, deadlier, and consequently more efficient. These many advantages against the Aztecs and their traditional weapons; and therefore the Spaniards won many battles alongside their allies, and succeeded greatly by using guns that were far more powerful than the Aztecs' weapons. Unfair as it is, this gave the Spanish explorer a supremacy in conquering one of the most elaborate European cities at the time. “The Aztecs were unable to rebel against the Spaniards because most of them were sick or dead from smallpox.

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1513 Words | 7 Pages

The Colonisation of Latin America had a major negative impact on these indigenous people as the arrival in Latin America collided with 12,000 years of isolation from Eurasia which imposed many diseases on the natives. The natives were unable to fight of these diseases as they did not have the immune system for these types of sickness nor the appropriate medicine so many of them died as a result. These diseases included small pox, measles and influenza, bubonic plagues, cholera and tropical

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