Book title: America - past and present Volume 1:To 1877 Chapter 1 Describe the effect of European exploration and colonization on African and...

Having
decimated their populations with internal wars and the bubonic plague, Europe was recovering in
the 1400's when exploration in the Americas began. With England and France also recovering from
the Hundred Years War, Spain launched exploration into the Americas, bringing with it
communicable diseases that spread throughout various populations. For, it was the Europeans
close contact with domesticated animals which cultivated diseases such as smallpox, diphtheria,
influenza,and measles to epidemic proportions in South America a continent unexposed hitherto,
killing up to 95% of the population. Added to this, the Spanish explorers felt it incumbent upon
them to make Christians of the natives, so when these South American indigenous people did not
wish to become Catholics, they also perished. In addition, because the crippling effects of
disease and forced changes to their cultures and way of life left the indigenous peoples
weakened and vulnerable to the conquerors, much wealth was...

href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_colonization_of_the_Americas">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_colonization_of_th...
href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Cabot">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Cabot