After Columbus's arrival in the Antilles and the subsequent waves of Spanish and other conquests, consequences were grave for both European colonizers and exploited Indians, most of which were exterminated, most actually by diseases, exchanged in both directions, as would be plant and animal species, either on purpose or by accident. Soon the robbery phase exhausted the Aztec, Maya and Inca gold and silver treasures. Next came settlements, for rich agriculture, hunting, fishery and mining. The American ecology is totally distorted by the European-style economy.
—KGF Vissers