Was the World Never the Same Again After Columbus Founded America?
Christopher Columbus, an Italian explorer, is best known for his accidental discovery of America. Even though Columbus’s vision of reaching Asia by sailing west failed, he gained something else entirely: America.
This new discovery, though accidental, influenced the rest of the world forever. Without America, the current United States of America would not exist. Without America, there will be a huge chunk of land missing in the world map. Without America, the world cannot be what it is today. Therefore, Columbus’s discovery was a huge contribution to the world.
Just like a cause and effect case, Columbus’s vision was the cause and the discovery of America was the effect. America would not have been discovered if not for his vision. Therefore, due to his vision, Columbus discovered America and changed the world forever. In 1492, Columbus discovered America which allowed a new age of exploration in Europe to occur. Columbus’s main goal was to reach Asia, not America when he set sail west across the Atlantic Ocean. However, the discovery of America, although accidental, was a huge achievement itself.
By finding America, Columbus helped to start “the beginning of centuries of trans-Atlantic conquest and colonization” (History Staff). At the time, many monarchs of the European countries sponsored expeditions in hopes of finding great wealth. Therefore, when Columbus discovered America, it created a huge opportunity for them to become rich and powerful. Moreover, due to the colonization, many Europeans came to America and later on established their own countries there. Columbus’s vision of trying to reach Asia by sailing west led to the discovery of America.
Then, the discovery led to colonization, which permanently affected the America’s future (Lutz). Columbus created a chain reaction by starting to vision something that seemed impossible to the minds of the others. The modern age has come, and with it the world was never the same again. Columbus then impacted the United States specifically, by setting his own precedents in America. Because he discovered America, it was natural for other explorers to follow Columbus’s example in a lot of things. However, not all of those precedents were beneficial, like how Columbus “helped to establish the slave trade that would later dominate the southern United States” (Robinson).
Because of him supporting the slave trade, others followed suit and later on became part of the culture in southern United States and caused conflicts with the northern United States. Of course, even though the effect Columbus’s precedents had in the future was detrimental, the fact that Columbus influenced a lot of American culture cannot be denied. Moreover, Columbus killed many natives living in America at the time and the colonists of what would become the United States arrived, they too followed Columbus’s example. In the end, the United States got built on the land where Columbus and many other colonists murdered the natives and had enslaved them. Now, as the colonists drove the rest of the natives out and established the United States, it cannot be helped that they followed Columbus’s example and made their culture similar to what Columbus had set as the precedents. Finally, Columbus changed the world by creating the Columbian Exchange.
The Columbian Exchange was an exchange of plants, animals, slaves, and diseases between Europe and America. This exchange, which happened due to Columbus’s discovery of America, permanently “impacted the social and cultural makeup of both sides of the Atlantic” (Malone). Like this quote states, the Columbian Exchange completely changed the world forever. It brought foreign plants and animals from Europe to America, and from America to Europe. Also, it allowed the exchange of people, with colonists from Europe moving into America and mixing cultures and bringing some Native Americans back with them to Europe.
Now, it seems impossible to imagine America where there are no onion, olive, banana, and sugarcane or Europe where there are no peanut, potato, tomato, and tobacco. Both America and Europe have all of these goods nowadays. Because of the Columbian Exchange, these goods were exchanged between the two land. Of course, though, an exchange occurs only when there are two sides present. Therefore, without America, this exchange would not have happened at all.
And because Columbus was the one who discovered America, he should gain the credit for the enormous impact the Columbian Exchange had on the world as well. In conclusion, it is evident that the world was never the same again due to Columbus. Like a chain reaction, Columbus’s vision to sail west to reach Asia led to the discovery of America. Then, the discovery of America allowed the age of exploration to begin, influenced countries like the United States that are in America, and created the Columbian Exchange. These three main factors that the discovery of America led to can be all traced back to Columbus’s vision. Without it, these factors would not have emerged.
They all impacted the world greatly and ushered the modern age in. Therefore, Columbus’s vision did influence the world significantly. After all, there is a Columbus day for a reason.
