Was the colonization of the Americas a positive or a negative?

There are really three groups of people that need to weigh in on this question and they probably would all have different responses. Europeans, especially from the elite classes, would view the exploration of America as a positive. It opened new lands for colonization and the acquisition of material wealth. While that the Europeans sought was not readily available, Europeans benefited from establishing cash crops systems in the New World. The exploration of America also...

There are really three groups of people that need to weigh in on this question and they probably would all have different responses. Europeans, especially from the elite classes, would view the exploration of America as a positive. It opened new lands for colonization and the acquisition of material wealth. While that the Europeans sought was not readily available, Europeans benefited from establishing cash crops systems in the New World. The exploration of America also produced a number of agricultural goods like corn, potato, and tomato that were not available before the voyages of Columbus.

For their part, the Europeans brought the horse to America. They also brought deadly diseases that the Native Americans were not immune to. For this reason, if you ask the Native population, they would view exploration as a disaster. Their populations were practically wiped out by disease and warfare that occurred from defending their homeland. Native populations faced the loss of their ancestral lands for centuries that followed the voyage of Columbus. Africans would not have felt the exploration of the Americas was a positive either. Because of the demand for labor on the large cash crop plantations, Africans were targeted for slave labor in the New World. Millions were forced across the Atlantic Ocean and into slavery in the Americas.