The arrival of Europeans of the Old World to the New World brought forth a transatlantic trade referred to as the Columbian Exchange. This was a wide transfer of foods, livestock, disease, and culture in the 15th and 16th centuries that truly changed the course of human history. To the Old World came goods such as tomatoes, maize (corn), and turkey, while to the New World, cows, horses, and sugarcane were introduced (these are only some of the many exchanged goods of the Columbian Exchange).
However, what many scholars deem as the most important and devastating was disease. Native Americans (including Mesoamerican and South American inhabitants) had not been in contact with New World diseases such as smallpox, measles, cholera, malaria, or typhus. Epidemics wiped out entire civilizations and resulted in the genocides of an estimated 40-50 million.
On another note, Spanish conquistadors took over the pre-Columbian world. Hernán Cortés conquered the Aztecs while Francisco Pizarro subdued the Incas. Both were aided with advanced with guns and steel weapons, but mainly with disease. A third of the Aztecs died due to smallpox, and the Incans saw a 93% declination in their population.
I definitely think it’s the last one! D
Gustav Mahler would be my answer. Strauss was also composing during the late 19th and early 20th but Mahler created more of a fusion between the two.
Originally commissioned by the Opera del Duomo for the Cathedral of Florence, it was meant to be one of a series of large statues to be positioned in the niches of the cathedral's tribunes, way up at about 80mt from the ground. David was originally commissioned as one of a series of statues of prophets to be positioned along the roofline of the east end of Florence Cathedral, but was instead placed in a public square, outside the Palazzo Vecchio, the seat of civic government in Florence, in the Piazza della Signoria, where it was unveiled on. Hope this helps!
