The discovery of the americas had both beneficial and disruptive impacts on world civilization.

According to the documents, documents 3, 4, and 7 represent beneficial impacts based on an

increase in trade worldwide. Documents 1 and 8 represent disruptive impacts based on religion
and economy. Documents 2, 5 and 6 all represent disruptive impacts due to depopulation.
The exploration of the Americas led to prosperities trade around the world. Document 3
speaks about merchants from spain increasing imports and exports out of the West Indies like
wool, oil, wine, cochineal, hides, brocades, silk, cloth, Negroes in exchange for gold, silver and
pearls. Tomas de Mercado, the author of the document describes the discovery of the Americas
opportunities for great wealth. Document 4 is a map which shows the Atlantic trade routes
and what is traded along them. Exports from North America included furs, iron, lumber, ginger,
silk, rice, tobacco among many other merchandise. Document 7 is a simple list of American
food and plants exported worldwide. Corn, medicinal Herbs, potatoes, pumpkin and many others
are listed. Based on these documents, the major benefit of the discovery of the Americas was the
introduction to new foods, plants, and merchandise.
Naturally, the benefits of new land bring consequences to the rest of the world.
Document 1 proves claims made by the christian church to be invalid. Interpreters of Holy
Scriptures declared that Faith in Christ had spread over the entire earth when in fact, it hadnt;
causing the Christian Church to lose credibility. Document 8 represents a disruptive impact on
economy. Due to an exponential increase in trade, gold and silver has Been cheapened by
abundance, causing worldwide inflation. These documents help provide a counter argument on
whether the discovery of the Americas were ultimately more beneficial or disruptive.
Documents 2, 5, and 6 provide information on the depopulation of people from all
continents portraying the discovery as disruptive. Document 2 is a chronicle on the mass death
of the Mayan people due to disease brought by the Europeans. Great was the stench of the
dead, wrote the Mayas. Document 5 is written on the depopulation of Congo because merchants
grab [congolese] and get [congolese] to be sold. Slavery caused a thinning to the population of
Congo, leaving the vulnerable to attack. Document 6 is also on the depopulation of England
after people leave to America and fail to return. This great migration causes a dwindling of
population which in turn, poses a threat of invasion. These three documents all suggest the major
consequence of the discovery of the Americas was the ruin of population on almost all
continents.
Although each document poses an idea on whether this discovery was beneficial or
disruptive, not all were from credible sources. An example of a credible source would be from
document 8. The author is Marc Lescabot, an economic historian. He is a credible source
because his profession entitles him to an honest statement regarding worldwide inflation. An
example of a biased source would be the author of document 6, John Evelyn; pamphleteer.
Evelyn is an expert on writing pamphlets, but the document he wrote is on migration providing a
biased view. Document 5 provides a credible source, King Alphonso of Congo, but could pose a
biased opinion in his letter to the King of Portugal. Because King Alphonso is speaking about his
people, he couldve over exaggerated the depopulation of his country. It would be helpful to his
credibility if he included information on how many civilians were being enslaved. It would also
be helpful if there was a document regarding the Native Americans outlook on merchants from
europe taking merchandise from their land.
The discovery of the Americas had both beneficial and disruptive impacts on world
civilization. Major benefits being the increase of trade, and major disruptions being the
depopulation in the Americas, Europe, and Africa. After analyzing these documents i can
conclude that majority of documents were written by a credible source there were an even
number of beneficial and disruptive accounts. Without the discovery and exploration of the
Americas, the world would not be as advanced as it is today.