Effects Of European Exploration
European exploration had a significant impact on both the Europeans and their indigenous counterparts. Exploration can be attributed to a variety of reasons including missionaries to educate and convert the masses to Christianity, slave labor and riches, and trade. However, these reasons arguably benefited the Europeans more than they did the Indigenous people. As a result of this, Indigenous people were often subjected to harsh and inhumane treatment in the Caribbean and the Americas. Therefore the activities of the great European explorers in the Age of Exploration should be viewed as crimes against humanity rather than historical achievements. Through the reading and first hand accounts entitled "Excerpts from Brief Account of the Devastation
of the Indies" written by Bartolomede de La Casas, it is stated that the indigenous peoples living in Hispaniola were docile and peaceful. With an eagerness to learn the religion of the Europeans Casas writes, they were not an immediate threat to European settlers. However, he notes the Spanish were brutish and aggressive. He estimated that the population of the indigenous peoples was somewhere in the three millions prior to European discovery. After European discovery, their population barely grazed 200. This can be attributed to the numerous crimes against humanity that occurred towards the indigenous peoples. Casas writes that the Europeans killed for sport and without discrimination, waged bloody wars, raped and pillaged, and sold the few remaining survivors into slavery. From this it can be inferred the general attitudes towards indigenous people during this time is one that revolves around the dehumanization and brutalization of the Native Americans and Indigenous peoples. In term of policies, there were systems in place to govern the people and slaves. This includes Christopher Columbus's gruesome tribute system, wherein every able bodied indigenous person was required to retrieve gold or cotton in three months, and if they did not reach the set quota, their hands would be chopped off. Another system was the slave trade, Columbus brought slaves from the New World to the Old World, where many soon died on the voyage and in Spain. The indigenous people suffered greatly as a result of the Age of Exploration- their populations annihilated, freedom stolen and their very way of life in ruins. The activities of the great European explorers in the Age of Exploration indeed should be viewed as crimes against humanity rather than historical achievements, to state that they are positive historical achievements would simply be Eurocentric in nature.
of the Indies" written by Bartolomede de La Casas, it is stated that the indigenous peoples living in Hispaniola were docile and peaceful. With an eagerness to learn the religion of the Europeans Casas writes, they were not an immediate threat to European settlers. However, he notes the Spanish were brutish and aggressive. He estimated that the population of the indigenous peoples was somewhere in the three millions prior to European discovery. After European discovery, their population barely grazed 200. This can be attributed to the numerous crimes against humanity that occurred towards the indigenous peoples. Casas writes that the Europeans killed for sport and without discrimination, waged bloody wars, raped and pillaged, and sold the few remaining survivors into slavery. From this it can be inferred the general attitudes towards indigenous people during this time is one that revolves around the dehumanization and brutalization of the Native Americans and Indigenous peoples. In term of policies, there were systems in place to govern the people and slaves. This includes Christopher Columbus's gruesome tribute system, wherein every able bodied indigenous person was required to retrieve gold or cotton in three months, and if they did not reach the set quota, their hands would be chopped off. Another system was the slave trade, Columbus brought slaves from the New World to the Old World, where many soon died on the voyage and in Spain. The indigenous people suffered greatly as a result of the Age of Exploration- their populations annihilated, freedom stolen and their very way of life in ruins. The activities of the great European explorers in the Age of Exploration indeed should be viewed as crimes against humanity rather than historical achievements, to state that they are positive historical achievements would simply be Eurocentric in nature.