Was it a good thing or bad thing that Europe conquered the "New World"?

That is a pretty interesting question.  Do I get to assume
that I would still have been born?   Can I assume I would have been born to the same
family and lived in Sweden where some of my ancestors came from?  I think if that is the
case, I might say unequivocally that it was bad.  But I've had a pretty good time here
in the New World, so it is difficult to say that.

From an
historical perspective, it is also pretty difficult to answer that question.  Obviously
horrible things were done, the spread of disease that killed millions of natives and the
incredibly callous and destructive attitude of the colonists (some of them) towards the
natives and the resources of the New World, the loss of incredibly advanced cultures and
ways of living (The Iriquois and other Native American groups) that likely set us back
quite a ways in terms of the level of civilization...  Anyway, you can certainly make
the argument that it was a very, very bad thing.

But you
might also suggest that it was good because it led to a certain level of religious
freedom, a country where social mobility was far more open (of course only for certain
groups of people and you can make the argument that since then it has decreased) and the
development of the democracy that many folks feel is pretty darn good (even now with its
warts...)

So I would have to say that in my opinion, this
is a question I am not going to be able to come down on one side of, perhaps if you
added a few more limitations to the ways you could interpret it.