Throughout Pre-Colombian period and the early twentieth century, a significant amount of settlement occurred all over the Latin American region. This caused a significant change in the people, the environment, technology. These changes while mainly negative when thinking of the people and the environment; there were positive effects in the technological side.
One of the biggest changes that came with colonization of Latin America was something that was a significant problem in any colonization: disease. When a region is isolated for a long period of time, their bodies grow an immunity to diseases in that specific regions. When people carrying new diseases from other regions come to colonize, the immune systems of the indigenous people are compromised significantly. Diseases such as the small pox, killed off thousands of indigenous people because their bodies were grievously impacted as their immune systems did not know what the disease was and the antibodies to destroy the disease were not there. And as a result, they died. Fortunately, the few that did survive, had a new immunity to these diseases and could adapt to those situations.
The second negative effect was on the environment. Not many people think about the impact of colonization on the environment, especially when the people colonizing bring new livestock. As an animal science major, I know the impact that over-grazing and new animals can have on the soil and the livelihood of a village. When these new animals came: swine, cattle, horse, the effect on the environment was serious. Swine like to root with their snout, this can cause serious soil erosion if they aren’t confined to a specific area; in addition to rooting, swine are cannibalistic and will eat absolutely anything. Cattle and Horse are both grazing animals. Because this was so many years ago, they did not have nutritionists or silage or hay laying around to tell the owners what to feed the animals. This meant that the cattle and horse relied solely on grazing. Areas of land can easily be overgrazed if they aren’t confined and on a pasture rotation to prevent over grazing. As a result of the over grazing. The grasses no longer grew in certain areas and the animals turned to the food supply of the villages and that caused problems with hunger and contamination of zoonotic diseases. Zoonotic diseases are diseases that are transmittable from animal to human. Soil erosion causes an inability or difficulty to grow food on those areas, this meant that the indigenous people had even less room to grow their food, causing hunger.
The main positive thing that came out of colonization was the technological advances. Ancient Maya saw the division of Venus and inscribed it. The maya were also famous for the calendars, particularly the infamous one in which the end of the world was predicted in 2012. In addition to conventional technology is agricultural technology. The early farmers on the Guianas coast used raised fields to grow various crops. They also worked on breeding corn to change the genetics for a better yield and better quality.
In conclusion, there were a lot of negatives for the indigenous people because of the colonization of Latin America. The diseases wiped out entire villages and caused a lot of horror among the indigenous people. The lucky ones that survived developed antibodies to fight these diseases and went on to live. The environmental concerns brought on by the people colonizing the Latin American region were serious, but not completely detrimental. The indigenous people suffer from hunger due to the new livestock over grazing and beginning to eat their food crop. Finally, there were technological advances, especially in agriculture that can still be used today in some regions. And they saw the beginning of genetically modifying crops to get better yields.
Kathryn's World History Blog 