Negative Consequences Of Christopher Columbus

On October 12, 1492 , Christopher Columbus landed on an island which is now considered part of the Caribbean. He was met with a strange group of people he assumed were from eastern India, thus he called them Indians. However, he would come to learn very quickly that this land was not India, but a whole new world yet discovered by his people. Columbus would go on to introduce European technology, plants, animals, and even diseases with the new world. He would also take not only the new world goods back to Spain, but some of the Indians themselves would make the journey across the sea unwillingly. This practice has come to be named the Columbian Exchange. Among the various things brought to the New World, the technology was vastly superior …show more content…
Columbus is blamed for death, destruction, and theft of the Indians. I believe Columbus had good intentions when he sailed toward the New World. In his diary, Columbus wrote” …because I recognized that they were people who would be better freed [from error] and converted to our Holy Faith by love than by force…”. This leads me to believe that Christopher Columbus wanted a peaceful relationship with the New World. There was no way for him to know in advance any of the negative outcomes that could or would form between the Old and New Worlds. I also think that the formation of the Columbian Exchange was a good thing for the world in general. Civilizations historically do not stay in one place. It is in our nature to explore and seek out new places and advance our knowledge. Traveling to the New World would have happened with or without Columbus. Furthermore, without the expansion to the New World, the advances in medicine and access to new plant life may have doomed the Europeans in the long run. The world as we know it may have never come to fruition had it not been for Christopher Columbus and the Columbian