The Columbian Exchange is one of the more spectacular ecological events of the past millennium. the Exchange is a time period consisting of biological and cultural exchange between the Old and the New World. Plants animals, disease, and many more were exchanged between the Europeans and the Native Americans.Christopher Columbus discovered the Americas on August 12, 1492 and the exchange lasted for many years to come. This exchange greatly affected almost every single society on Earth at the time. The Columbian Exchange of food majorly upgraded the European's diet, not only because it added to the taste, but by also simply increasing society's ability to feed more people. Less and less people had to worry about starving, which was a large factor in the European population growth. Starvation was easily overcome through the transplantation of the New World foods. The exchange of crops strongly affected both the Old World and the New World.When the Europeans …show more content…
The Native Americans had only a few animals servants. They had two kinds of South American camels, the guinea pig, the dog, and many kinds of fowls. They had no beast of burden and had no animals to help with their hard labors. On the second voyage in 1493, Columbus brought sheep, cattle, chickens, horses, pigs, dogs, and goats. When the animals were brought across the ocean it brought new labor forms, new types of transportation, and new sources of food. The animals did not catch as many diseases as the humans, so while the humans would die off, the animals would thrive on the wildlife. The Columbian exchange is often praised for its positive effects, not usually considering the negative aspects. New diseases introduced by the Europeans (mostly from Asia) to which indigenous people had no cure, depopulated many cultures. Research states that from 1500 to 1650 the Native Americans population decreased fifty to ninety
To begin with, the 15th and 16th centuries mark the commencement of European colonization and the integration of American and European culture. Countless Europeans and American Indians were influenced by one another, throughout the Columbian Exchange. Granted, the Native Americans suffered immensely, but there are more importantly numerous significant advantages to be noticed because of European migration. The Columbian Exchange led to the introduction of various products and sources of food, the merging of different groups of people, and transformations in American government and economy. Without the combination of European and American Indian culture, life today would be incredibly less progressive and different.
A New Way of Life: How The Colombian Exchange Made a Difference in Our Lives It’s hard to believe that events that happened centuries ago have a huge impact on the way in which we form our ways of life. The Columbian Exchange was one of those events that still has effect on our lives, today. According to Cory Malone, (“Beginning after Columbus' discovery in 1492 the exchange lasted throughout the years of expansion and discovery”). It was a time period where cultural and biological exchanges were made between the new world and old world.
Positive effects of the Columbian Exchange was that it gave Europe and America new resources which in turn expanded their knowledge. The got new foods, animals, and materials they wouldn't otherwise have. The bad thing about the Columbian Exchange was that it spread disease between Europe and
The Columbian Exchange was the exchange of goods animals and plants from one country to another. The Columbian Exchange had many impacts. Some of them can still be seen today. One example is introduction of new species. Another is the slave trade that happened.
Spaniards unknowingly brought bacteria and viruses from the Old World that caused destructive diseases including measles, smallpox, and others. These epidemics decimated the vast majority of Native Americans in the New World. The result was a huge decline in the number of Native Americans, which effectively turned the once-dominant Native Americans into a minority on their own land to the rising number of European and African descendants. Native Americans were not the only ones who suffered. Many of Columbus’s men contracted syphilis after having sexual interactions with New World women.
The columbian exchange provided a global supply of different sort of agricultural goods because the Americas provided a good land well suited for cultivation. Perhaps one of the worst aspects of the Columbian Exchange was the flow of diseases. Europeans introduced diseases such as Tuberculosis, and Syphilis that killed many Native Americans. Since the Columbian Exchange caused a labor shortage in America, Europeans began to look for ways of cheap, efficient labor so they drew their attention towards the Native Americans. The Spanish people developed a labor system known as Encomienda.
These animals would become a key component in the trading of the new world. However, they also introduced illnesses like small pox, measles, yellow fever, typhus, influenza and malaria to the Natives. Without any immunities, from lack of contact with domesticated animals, the Native Americans were left defenseless as mosquitoes and rats spread sickness all through the Columbian Exchange. 90% of the Native population would soon quickly diminish with disease starting from the Mexica and their encounter with the Spaniards. This rapid depletion was named the Great Dying and instigated immigrants colonizing America.
Another negative effect of the Columbian Exchange was the disease that it brought to the New World, which was a leading cause of widespread death throughout the area. When the Europeans sailed across the Atlantic, they brought all of the germs that were native to the Old World, such as smallpox and tuberculosis, with them. The Europeans were not affected by this, as they had already developed an immunity to these bacteria. The natives, however, were impacted greatly by the germs that were brought to their homeland, for they had never seen viruses like the ones brought aboard European ships. Diseases spread quickly amongst indigenous peoples, killing, in some places, 100% of a population as they travelled from person to person.
Economic Effects of the Columbian Exchange Inflation of cash-crops, slavery and silver resulting from the Columbian Exchange caused a drastic effect on the global economy. Cash-crops forged new trade routes across continents, slavery supported New World exports, and silver caused power shifts in the world 's distribution of wealth. As Spanish expeditions to the New World increased in size and purpose, the economic effects on the rest of the world spread with equal vigor. The triangular trade circulated commodities between Europe, Africa, and the Americas. From Europe some commodities were distributed throughout Asia.
During the late 1400s and the early 1500s, European expeditioners began to explore the New World. Native Americans, who were living in America originally, were much different than the Europeans arriving at the New World; they had a different culture, diet, and religion. Eventually, both the Native Americans and the European colonists exchanged different aspects of their life. For example, Native Americans gave the Europeans corn, and the Europeans in return gave them modern weapons, such as various types of guns. This type of trade was called “the Columbian Exchange.”
On October 1492, Christopher Columbus and his crew docked in the Bahamas. As soon as they stepped foot off the ship, two worlds reunited with each other-with both positive and negative effects.(B, Johnson) As different cultures combined, crops and animals did as well. Foods from Europe to America were more livestock than crops. Cows,
Not only America and England were affected by the Columbian Exchange ; without the Columbian Exchange the foods that currently present in many locations across the world wouldn’t be there. In document 2 it states, “Today some 200 million Africans rely on it as their main source of nutrition. Cacao and rubber, two other South American crops, became important export items in West Africa the 20th century.” Also in document 2 it states, “Indeed, almost everywhere in the world, one or another American food crops caught on, complementing existing crops, or more rarely, replacing them.” These two quotes demonstrate that the Columbian Exchange brought about a massive change in the foods people
In the Columbian Exchange, diseases were brought from Europeans and the population of American Indians had declined by 80-90% during the first hundred
The Columbian Exchange impacted almost every civilization in the world bringing fatal diseases that depopulated many cultures. However a wide variety of new crops
The Columbian Exchange refers to the monumental transfer of goods such as: ideas, foods, animals, religions, cultures, and even diseases between Afroeurasia and the Americas after Christopher Columbus’ voyage in 1492. The significance of the Columbian Exchange is that it created a lasting tie between the Old and New Worlds that established globalization and reshaped history itself (Garcia, Columbian Exchange). Worlds that had been separated by vast oceans for years began to merge and transform the life on both sides of the Atlantic (The Effects of the Columbian Exchange). This massive exchange of goods gave rise to social, political, and economic developments that dramatically impacted the world (Garcia, Columbian Exchange). During this time,