Nina Williams
World Civilizations
21 April 2015
The Influence of Colonization on the Modern World
The Americas today are a cultural, agricultural, and economic epicenter host to so many different peoples it can become dizzying. However, it did not begin this way. As Charles C. Mann, an accomplished novelist and journalist, describes in his book 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created, “The ships that sailed across the Atlantic carried not only human beings, but plants and animals… After Columbus, ecosystems that had been separate for eons suddenly met and mixed…” (Mann xxiii) Perhaps the common understanding of our world as it stands today, influenced by childhood stories of a so-called daring Spanish man and his three ships, is …show more content…
Before Columbus, most if not all American civilizations hadn’t ever been exposed to the diseases which centuries before had wreaked havoc on Europe. ¬-“Throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries novel microorganisms spread across the Americas… … Killing three-quarters or more of the people in the hemisphere… … In the annals of human history there is no comparable demographic catastrophe.” (Mann 14)
Many diseases of this time period were an immediate death sentence. With malaria, a mosquito bite led to chills and eventual death. Yellow fever can be transmitted through mosquito bites as well and often begins as a simple fever that turns into jaundice and then causes cell deterioration in internal organs. Organ failure is frequently the cause of death, and there has never been a cure. These are just a couple of examples of the diseases that seemed to contribute to the devastation of American civilizations in the early days of …show more content…
This, in turn, caused the sudden spread of yellow fever. “… Between 1680 and 1700, the number of slaves suddenly exploded. Virginia’s slave population rose… … from three thousand to sixteen thousand – and kept soaring thereafter.” (Mann 120) Mann suggests that the sudden popularity was due to the rising cost of hiring indentured servants. (Mann 121)
Mann points out that the Americas likely would not exist as they do today without the slave trade. Since disease was wreaking havoc upon the native peoples and Europeans were wary of going to the Americas for work, slavery became necessary for them to continue colonization. However, it must be said that slavery has influenced an unbalanced social system that still exists today.
However, the Americas were not the only place in the world affected by these sudden efforts towards globalization. As stated, slavery was rampant in colonies, affecting both indigenous and foreign cultures alike. This not only led to the erasure of cultures in the American colonies but also a decrease in population in Africa. China was also severely affected by European colonization of the
World Civilizations
21 April 2015
The Influence of Colonization on the Modern World
The Americas today are a cultural, agricultural, and economic epicenter host to so many different peoples it can become dizzying. However, it did not begin this way. As Charles C. Mann, an accomplished novelist and journalist, describes in his book 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created, “The ships that sailed across the Atlantic carried not only human beings, but plants and animals… After Columbus, ecosystems that had been separate for eons suddenly met and mixed…” (Mann xxiii) Perhaps the common understanding of our world as it stands today, influenced by childhood stories of a so-called daring Spanish man and his three ships, is …show more content…
Before Columbus, most if not all American civilizations hadn’t ever been exposed to the diseases which centuries before had wreaked havoc on Europe. ¬-“Throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries novel microorganisms spread across the Americas… … Killing three-quarters or more of the people in the hemisphere… … In the annals of human history there is no comparable demographic catastrophe.” (Mann 14)
Many diseases of this time period were an immediate death sentence. With malaria, a mosquito bite led to chills and eventual death. Yellow fever can be transmitted through mosquito bites as well and often begins as a simple fever that turns into jaundice and then causes cell deterioration in internal organs. Organ failure is frequently the cause of death, and there has never been a cure. These are just a couple of examples of the diseases that seemed to contribute to the devastation of American civilizations in the early days of …show more content…
This, in turn, caused the sudden spread of yellow fever. “… Between 1680 and 1700, the number of slaves suddenly exploded. Virginia’s slave population rose… … from three thousand to sixteen thousand – and kept soaring thereafter.” (Mann 120) Mann suggests that the sudden popularity was due to the rising cost of hiring indentured servants. (Mann 121)
Mann points out that the Americas likely would not exist as they do today without the slave trade. Since disease was wreaking havoc upon the native peoples and Europeans were wary of going to the Americas for work, slavery became necessary for them to continue colonization. However, it must be said that slavery has influenced an unbalanced social system that still exists today.
However, the Americas were not the only place in the world affected by these sudden efforts towards globalization. As stated, slavery was rampant in colonies, affecting both indigenous and foreign cultures alike. This not only led to the erasure of cultures in the American colonies but also a decrease in population in Africa. China was also severely affected by European colonization of the