Question #12a33

1 Answer
May 1, 2016

Adversely.

Explanation:

The earliest European conquerors in the New World consoled themselves with the idea that they were bringing Christianity to savage heathens. They were also killing, enslaving, and robbing them while infecting them with loathsome diseases. There's not much of a shiny upside to this.

It's not all black hats and white hats, though. Native Americans were a politically complex people and the various nations had feuds with one another, and some of them saw the Conquistadors as an opportunity to settle blood feuds with their domestic rivals.

There was an assumption on native people's part that Europeans would look around, see that there was nothing in the Americas, and go back home. But Europeans were expansionists by nature, and expansion is strictly a one-way process.