Kevin Chen

In the Columbian Exchange, the natives on the New World were negatively affected. The exchange might’ve brought useful things like horses and muskets but in the end the exchange harmed the natives. The Native Americans in Hispaniola were treated badly and were viewed as inferior people who needed to be controlled as implied in documents 1 and 2. The diseases also decimated the population spreading like a plague. (document 4) Any treatment would either worsen the problem or help spread the disease and it had no useful effect.
One might say that the exchange was positive because of the fact that it led to the use of horses by the Plain Indians Ad others. However, the horses were also used in battle causing higher casualties. The use of horses also was used to manipulate the natives into killing of other tribes. Also the loss of cultures that resulted are severe and is not reversible. Such a loss out- weighs the benefits that came along. One might also argue that horses allowed hunts to be more successful. However, the hunts then slowly destroyed the food supply that thy relied on. Although many might question the reliability of document 2’s numbers (there is a debate on the original number of Indians on Hispaniola according to document 4), the truth that around half of the population died from bad treatment and diseases still remains true. Another argument might note that better technology had come to the New World via the Columbian Exchange, However the diseases that was exchanged to the New World killed many very fast as shown in document 7. Although there were many improvements, the natives in the New world suffered due to this exchange.