The Negative Consequences of the International Trade Essay Example
The Age of Exploration showed that humanity is not all about sunshine and rainbows. It is full of atrocious things that no man should ever experience. While humanity may seem marvelous, it is inadequate. For example, an awful thing that humanity has obtained throughout the years are people that know they have a disease, but spread it because they have no regard for human life. These people erupted in The Age of Exploration when trade was popular. But the spread of diseases are not the only appalling, unfair thing that occurred during this time. Several other things transpired during these times. For instance, lies, scams, culture being demolished, and slaves having inequitable treatment are some of the other unfair things happening in the ecosystem. So, if Trade ceased to exist, humanity would not have the amount of injustices and hate that it has now.
A negative aspect about Trade was the diseases. While foods and finished goods were being exchanged in the Triangular Trade, they were not the only thing being traded. Diseases were in the air like pollen, spreading rapidly. In 1492, the infamous Christopher Columbus and his scourges traveled over the ocean blue and they spread an epidemic disease to the Native Americans. The immune systems of the helpless Native Americans were not advanced at the time. They were not ready to handle the new detrimental diseases on top of their old ones.
Columbus’s visit kicked them when they were already down. The lives of an indigenous tribe were cut short due to Columbus’s first stop in the Americas. In fact, 95% of people passed away. “There were an estimated 250,000 indigenous people in Hispaniola in 1492. By 1517, only 14,000 remained.” (Omrf.org) Not only did Christopher Columbus spread these awful diseases on his trip, but he acted like the good guy in the situation. According to his letter that he sent describing the experience, he stated “I gave them many beautiful and pleasing things, which I had brought with me, for no return whatever, in order to win their affection.” Furthermore, he added “On the contrary, I gave whatever I had, cloth and many other things, to whomsoever I approached, or with whom I could get speech, without any return being made to me.” (Historycentral.com) Trade influenced this attack and because of that, innocent adolescents and adults that did not do anything died prematurely. But it was not just the Native Americans who got affected by these diseases.
When the Europeans returned from their bloodshed adventure, they did not walk away unscathed. As a result, they acquired several lethal diseases, such as “tuberculosis and an extremely virulent syphilis.” (Columbus-brought-more-than-ships-to-the-new-world.) So not only did they transmit these diseases to helpless Native Americans, they transmitted rampant diseases to innocent Europeans. There were too many casualties. Out of every casualty, who knows if one of these individuals could have significantly advanced the world: help it for the better. Make things that no human has ever seen.
This genocide was like the death penalty. There was no hope for them anymore. No human being deserves this. No human being deserves to be put against their will. An important thing to note is that not all of the Native Americans passed away. So what about their family that survived. Imagine the agony and misery that these people had to put up with in their lifetime. All this was caused by trade. Without Trade, this genocide would not have occurred. Without Trade Innocent lives would not have died. Without Trade, the world would be just.
Another unjust thing that trade made is slavery. One may question when slavery was born? And the answer to that question is it was born during the Age of Exploration in 1619 “when a Dutch ship brought 20 African slaves ashore in the British colony of Jamestown, Virginia.” (History.com. “Slavery in America.) This was just the start of individuals being property to other individuals. All human beings are born with fundamental rights in the United States of America now, but during the Age of exploration, this concept did not exist.
If you were born with no riches than you stayed that way for your lifetime because there was no social mobility. If your family had no money, then you were born as a piece of property and you would be traded as a piece of property. If you were born into this type of life, you were tortured. According to virginislandshistory.org you “were only fed just enough food and drink to stay alive. Illness was rampant and many dead bodies were thrown overboard along the way.” And if you tried to fight this unfair treatment, and run away, you would get one of your legs cut off. If your master somehow forgave you, you would still get an ear cut off and one hundred and fifty strikes with a whip.
Trade causes too much hate in this world. Scams were happening and people got angry. During the conquest of Spain, people fought because of the scams and it did not end well. Montezuma, a ruler was killed. According to Bernal Diaz Del Castillo, many people got extremely angry and started throwing “a shower of stones and darts were discharged that (our men who were shielding him having neglected for a moment their duty, because they saw how the attack ceased while he spoke to them) he was hit by three stones, one on the head, another on the arm and another on the leg, and although they begged him to have the wounds dressed and to take food, and spoke kind words to him about it, he would not. Indeed, when we least expected it, they came to say that he was dead.”
Without a doubt, injustice and hate have arisen in the world that we live in today and it is not slowing down. Humanity and life as a whole is not a walk in the park. It can be unpleasant. The Age of Exploration proved that the human race is not as innocent as it seems. When trade was occurring, people were ignorant and did bad things so if trade did not occur/exist, these events would have never in a million years happen. When Columbus and his team traveled to explore, they traded.
They traded many things that the Native Americans appreciated. But they could not appreciate these things for long for they had obtained diseases through these foods and items being traded. It was the start of an epidemic among the Native Americans. Trade caused this. But this was not the only death that happened because of trade, rulers died because of these transactions between the human race. And on top of those deaths, no one shall forget the pain, torture, and deaths of the many slaves that were also traded. No person deserves to be a piece of property. It is not just and it is not fair.
Why do innocent lives have to be cut short due to these things caused by trade? No one will ever know. Although what people should know, is that the human race should get a chance to live to their fullest potential. Because even today, many hateful things occur like murder or stealing and Many unjust things occur like people getting their lives ruined by false accusations. Or people getting away with harmful crimes that they committed. Maybe if trade desisted to exist, then people would stop being guilty until proven innocent instead of the other way around. Maybe if trade desisted to exist, then life would be filled with more love than hate.
Works cited
Cardwell, Mikayla. “Positive and Negative Effects of the Age of Exploration.” Prezi.com, 25 Sept. 2014, prezi.com/_tum5m4rrwfw/positive-and-negative-effects-of-the-age-of-exploration/.
“Columbus Brought More than Ships to the New World.” Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation OMRF, 10 Oct. 2013,omrf.org/2013/10/10/columbus-brought-more-than-ships-to-the-new-world/.
Calderone, Julia. “Christopher Columbus Brought a Host of Terrible New Diseases to the New World.” Business Insider, Business Insider, 12 Oct. 2015, www.businessinsider.com/diseases-columbus-brought-to-americas-2015-10.
(Editors, History.com. “Slavery in America.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 15 Apr. 2019, www.history.com/topics/black-history/slavery.)
“A Slave's Life – When People Were Property.” The Danish West-Indies, www.virgin-islands-history.org/en/history/slavery/a-slaves-life-when-people-were-property/.
Schulman, Marc. “Primary Source Letters and Documents.” Voyage Of Columbus AS DESCRIBED BY COLUMBUS HIMSELF, www.historycentral.com/documents/columbus.html.
Schulman, Marc. “Primary Source Letters and Documents.” DEATH OF MONTEZUMA from The True History of the Conquest of New Spain, by Bernal Diaz Del Castillo, 1517-21, www.historycentral.com/documents/cortes.html.
