Kayla+Arthur

 **// Columbian Exchange good or bad? //**  **//  Kayla Arthur Mr. Karlsson’s 2nd period world history class. //** **  The Columbian Exchange. The thing that helped get us where we are today. Its because of the Columbian Exchange that we have some of the things today. If Columbus hadn’t ‘discovered’ America we wouldn’t be here. We wouldn’t have tobacco, corn, turkeys, potatoes and lots of other things. But was it bad? ** **  Because of Columbus and the Columbian Exchange, many Native Americans lost their lives, homes, land, family and what they believed in. If the Native Americans refused to convert to Christianity then they were killed. The people who can over from Europe didn’t believe that the Natives were real people. It was all most as if they didn’t have a right to live. ** **  Europeans brought over diseases, like small pox and yellow fever, and it killed a lot of the population. And if Columbus ‘discovered’ America the Columbian Exchange never would have happened. ** **  The Europeans just came over from Europe and took everything they could see. Including Salves, land, goods. And they almost gave nothing in return. In the Natives eyes what good are horses, and other grains and goods that the Europeans brought over when they can’t believe in what they want to or they are killed, their families and themselves are dying from the diseases that Europeans brought over, and when they have no land left, no freedom, no nothing left. A few measly goods are nothing compared to what the Natives went through. ** **  But was it a good thing? Because of the Columbian Exchange we have things like Chocolate, which is made from a mixture of Old world and New world goods. We have horses, cows, chickens and just in general demonstrated animals. ** **  And because of cows that Europeans brought we have cheese, milk, butter, ice cream, and other milk products. ** **  Because of horses we were able to get more done. For a long time before the automobile and train was made the horse was our main transport. We used it for help with farming to plant crops faster, to get to places faster. ** **  Because if chickens we have eggs, which are used in a lot of things now and days. You make a birthday cake you need eggs. Cookies you need eggs. And it just goes on and on. ** **  My point is the Columbian Exchange wasn’t good or bad. It was mixture of both. To get what we have today we have to take the good with the bad and not point it out as just good or just bad. Or we might just find out what it’s like to live without that thing and truly find out if it was ‘good or bad.’ Everything has a little good and a little bad outcome. So it just doesn’t matter if it was good or bad. **