Christopher Columbus Negative Effects

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Yet the ones to first embark on this alternative voyage was Spain. After Ferdinand and Isabella defeated the Moors, also known as the Muslim inhabitants, they turned their attention to the ever so popular voyages, conveniently at the same time Christopher Columbus was looking for a sponsor to stipend his long held dream to voyage to the west in order to determine if it was possible to get to China and India quicker (History). Traveling westward at the time was practically unheard of especially since most still believed that the world was flat and you could fall off the face of the world. Despite all of the facts at the time, Christopher was still set on traveling west to find China. With the considerable proceeds from Ferdinand and Isabella, …show more content…

During his first voyage to the new world, Columbus encountered the native people, the Arawaks, of the Bahama island and later wrote in his log “...They are well-built, with good bodies and handsome features… They do not bear arms, and do not know of them...They would make fine servants… With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want…” (Steven). This thought was the first negative impact that would bring the native peoples population dropping. Christophers sole intent was to find riches to return to Spain, primarily gold. When he met the Arawaks he saw that the people had “...tiny gold ornaments in their ears… [which] ...led Columbus to take some of them aboard ship as prisoners because he insisted that they guide him to the source of the gold...” (Steven). Christopher, in a way, collected the native people and whatever gold he could get his hands on to take back with him as proof that he found the lands of Japan and China. This way he could ensure his reward as was promised to him by the King and Queen of Spain, at the time Ferdinand and Isabella. Yet what he did not take into account was the how the people would acclimatize to Europe or even the weather. On the voyage back to Spain, as the “...weather turned cold, the Indian prisoners began to die…”, and once back on the lands of Spain Columbus even gave a …show more content…

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