Conclusion

Technological advancements in navigation and shipbuilding technology set the stage for European exploration in the Early Modern period. With the ability to sail longer distances more quickly and easily, ships were not only responsible for both bringing Old World plants, animals, diseases to American colonies, but also for helping to enable intentional and unintentional changes in New World populations by Europeans after 1492. Thus, past improvements in ship travel made it possible for European settlers to both establish and sustain their agricultural and social presence in the colonies they built in the New World. 

- Carolyn Egekeze, Biology, LMU '20