Written in 2006, “The Columbian Exchange” by John F. Richards provides the reader with a sense of how after making contact with the native people of the Americas, the Spaniards proceeded to change the landscape of the region and exploit its natural resources. Richards’ thesis is the colonization of the New World by the Spaniards ultimately destroyed the society and environment of the natives who had called that area their home for centuries. The Spaniards brought numerous diseases, to which they had developed an immunity, into the New World without knowing it. For example, smallpox had a devastating impact on the native societies and caused an abrupt shift in daily life for the Taino people. Additionally, the Spaniards’ greed caused the accelerated
