Back in the year 1412, in the very beginning of the 15TH century, there was a fact of exception that would change the history not only of two continents, but, by extension, of the whole world. But would it be good or bad? Let’s look at some of the pros and cons of America’s discovery:
Consequences of the Discovery of America
Many people, being surveyed on the advantages and disadvantages of the “discovery of America”, respond that they are not really disadvantages, but quite the opposite, adding that thanks to this there is “progress” and that could be passed from an indigenous state to a civilized state.
However, there are also those who deeply regret what happened, because they take into account the alarming and painful figures of the murdered and the crimes of all denominations,towards the ancestors and pre-Columbian culture, so it is easy to find both Effects and positive aspects as negatives of the discovery of America
We’ll briefly summarize both the negative and positive consequences:
Negative consequences
They took a great deal of wealth and gold (it was practically a looting. On many occasions they redeemed trinkets, mirrors, etc., by gold booties.
Children, men and women were raped and massacred.
Likewise there was violation of human rights, trafficking in persons and slavery
De facto slavery lasted for several centuries and was subsequently subjected to foreign powers
They killed a lot of indigenous people. It was a decimation and the population was greatly reduced (some claim that the deaths surpassed those that left the first and Second World Wars).
They were forced to be Catholics and the natural religion was exterminated, under penalty of death(the Catholic Church, of the hand of its armed arm, the so-called Holy Inquisition).
Natural resources were exploited and the landscape was devastated.
They displaced the indigenous people.
Cultures like the Muiscas and Chibchas disappeared completely.
Hundreds of species of birds and native animals disappeared, as did native and own vegetation, because they even brought eucalyptus, pines and strange trees that damaged the earth.
They brought new illnesses.
Positive consequences
A cultural exchange without a background in both continents was brought in exchange.
They brought new food.
They brought new cultural elements and linguistic contributions (a new language-which, at the same time as it involved extinction of the native languages, is rather negative).
The color of our skin is thanks to that great mixture (really the crossbreeding is not that it is a great advantage).
A new world was discovered that gave a new vision to the future of the planet.
The places found and the cultures are of dream, spectacular.
They advanced America’s progress.
New technologies were present.
The forms of intellectualism and reasoning arrived to the culture.
Trade routes were strengthened and developed.
Not even the dead that in total left the first and Second World War, arrive if you want to half the number of murders committed in the famous “conquest.” They were whole nations disappeared by barbarism. The social system in which we are developing has been implanted with a huge ocean of blood.
Image source: Prensalibrenagua
