How were Europeans influenced by exploration in the Americas?

Native peoples of America had no immunity to the diseases that European explorers and colonists brought with them. Diseases such as smallpox, influenza, measles, and even chicken pox proved deadly to American Indians. Europeans were used to these diseases, but Indian people had no resistance to them.

The Europeans brought technologies, ideas, plants, and animals that were new to America and would transform peoples’ lives. Guns, iron tools, and weapons. Christianity and Roman law. Sugarcane and wheat. Horses and cattle. They also carried diseases against which the Indian peoples had no defenses. The interaction among groups of produced a complex mosaic of relationships. Varying forms of resistance and adaptation among Indians, African, and European peoples occurred throughout the region.