The Columbian Exchange Essay

Submitted By sarslandc
Words: 400
Pages: 2

Chrstine Sarsland
The Columbian Exchange – no, we are not talking about a foreign exchange student! When Christopher Columbus set sell to find the new route to the Asia market, he died thinking that he had accomplished this task.1 After Columbus “found” the new land, many explorers and fortune seekers came after. During this time, the Europeans found that this new world was desperately in need of God, and Christianity. The Spanish explores were very successful with their conversions of the native tribes. Many believe that the success of their “word of God” conversion was through small pox. Within Plagues and Peoples2 , McNeill tells a tail of half of the native people being wiped out because of smallpox. As the natives are dying, the Spanish are miraculously untouched. This ability to have immunity to a disease we brought to a remote people is one of the main reasons today that region is so heavily Catholic and not Protestant.
Among the many people going to the new world were the many groups that comprised of the Roanoke Colony3. This colony had three different groups within it. The first arrived in 1584, and were mainly men sent to explore and map the area. The second were again, mainly men, sent for a military and scientific mission. The third group arrived in 1587, and was of families – 17 women and 11 children and 90 men. Within this group was to be Virginia Day, the first “American” born English settler baby. This colony mysteriously vanished (something many people did when setting out to explore the early Americas!).
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