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Regina Torchia
Honors History II
Ms. Burke
10 November 2016
The European Exploration and Colonization of the Americas
In 1492, Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue. Many children learn this fact
during their social studies classes in elementary school. What they do not know is how it lead
into the Age of Exploration and the Commercial Revolution in Europe during the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries. This was a time period of thriving merchants, new overseas trading
techniques, and African slavery. The European exploration and colonization of the Americas
impacted society by the spread of disease, its influence on the Transatlantic Slave Trade, and the
introduction of new economic systems.
First, the european exploration and colonization of the Americas impacted society by the
spread of diseases. Prior to the europeans creating colonies in the Americas, Native Americans
had not been subject to many diseases because of their healthy diets. After the europeans began
to settle in their colonies, diseases carried over by the Europeans began to wipe out mass
populations of Native Americans increasing the death rate to about eighty percent. Some diseases
brought to the Americas by the Europeans consisted of: bubonic plague, chickenpox, pneumonic
plague, cholera, diphtheria, influenza, measles, scarlet fever, smallpox, typhus, tuberculosis, and
whooping cough. All of for these diseases repeatedly killed Native Americans for almost two
centuries, but the disease that killed the greatest amount of people in the New World was
smallpox. For example, in 1633, the smallpox epidemic killed both the Massachusetts and

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Pawtucket Native American tribes. At some point, the Europeans had enough of their people,
their friends, family, and their Native American workers dying due to disease. Soon, they began
to research cures for the diseases by trying to create vaccines, but most of their research was
specific to smallpox because it was killing the greatest amount of people. Unfortunately, they
had not found a successful vaccine to cure small pox until 1832 when congress decided to spend
one thousand two hundred dollars on vaccines to create immunity from smallpox for both
Native Americans and colonists in the New World. All in all, the exploration and colonization of
the Americas spread many deadly diseases, but it forced advancements in the medical field.
Secondly, the European exploration and colonization of the Americas impacted society
by its influence on the Transatlantic Slave Trade. As Portuguese ships began to explore African
Coasts, they discovered gold, silver, and other riches. The Portuguese took these goods in mass
quantities by ship back to Portugal and sold them to wealthy landowners. As time continued, the
ships started cargoing African people to sell to the wealthy landowners in Portugal who were in
need of labor on their plantations. The English and Dutch observed Portugals behaviors and saw
how wealthy the merchants were becoming. Then, they raided the Portuguese ships and sold the
goods and people as their own commodities. As the Spanish colonies grew, labor demand by
plantation owners increased. Surrounding countries favored the riches and goods that the
Americas produced and offered workers for their products. Soon, a triangle-trade formed
between Europe, Africa, and the Americas, but the Americas were receiving the greatest amount
of African slaves. Slave owners in the Americas became greedy and started mistreating and
punishing the slaves. The wealthy, greedy plantation owners whose main goal was to maximize
their estate and wealth was the reason the the colonies flourished. The more slaves they had to

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work the land, the more goods they sold equaled regulation of an excellent economy. But, the
colonists mistreatment of their slaves created an inhumane demographic outlook upon the
African people. This mistreatment acted as a gateway to racism and slavery which would impact
American society for centuries. Therefore, the exploration and colonization of America
influenced the Transatlantic Slave Trade.
Finally, the colonization and exploration of the Americas impacted society by introducing
new economic systems. Because of the colonies in the Americas, overseas trade increased
because other countries wanted the raw materials that America had. The merchants in Europe
began to start their own private trading services which introduced the capitalistic economic
system. Capitalism is an economic system based on people having their own private companies
and the investment of a persons money for profit. The idea of capitalism was very important
because it increased the number of wealthy citizens instead of the government being the most
wealthy. Alongside capitalism, joint-stock companies formed. A joint-stock company works like
a modern-day corporations so, it is defined as a group of people who put their wealth towards a
similar cause. During this time period, the similar cause was to invest in the colonies in the
Americas. But, in order to profit from participating in a joint-stock company, the investor had to
take large risks. If the colony they invested in failed, the investor would lose money. If the
colony a person investing in thrived, the investor would make very large profits. The perks of a
joint-stock company is the more investors there were, the less risk a person has of losing large
sums of money if the colony they invested in failed. As time went on, a new economic policy
called Mercantilism was introduced. Mercantilism is an economic policy stating that the amount
of power a country has depend on their wealthiness. Soon, the new goal of every nation was to

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be as wealthy as possible. There were two ways of doing this: obtaining a lot of gold and silver
or buying less goods and selling more. This created more of a self-sufficient economy. Much of
the gold and silver at the time was being found in the Americas, so there became an overseas
market between the Americas and Europe. As one can see, the economic styles introduced were
due to the exploration and colonization of the Americas.
In conclusion, the European exploration and colonization of the Americas had a great
impact on society. During this time period, new diseases came about killing many Native
Americans, slavery became popular due to the trade of raw materials while the economy thrived
because of it. Moreover, the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were important time periods of
behavioral patterns that would impact the world for thousands of years.