Columbian Exchange: Causes Of The American Revolution

Throughout the Age of Exploration, trade and colonialist desires ruled the world. After Christopher Columbus's journey to the New World in 1492, the Columbian exchange progressed rapidly, bringing enormous changes to both the old and new worlds. Despite the positive contributions such as horses and new types of food, the Columbian exchange also brought a multitude of illnesses including the deadly smallpox (1). Although Thomas Bailey argued in the American Pageant that the “Black Legend” is inaccurate, it is clear that the devastation brought upon the Native Americans proves its accuracy through the erasure of identity, the spread of epidemics, and the immoral crimes that the Spaniard colonialists committed against the native population.

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.

The Columbian Exchange is referred to as a time of natural and social trades between the New and Old Worlds. Trades of plants, illness and disease, animals and new technology changed European and Native American lifestyles. Advancements in technology, production of agriculture and warfare, expanded death rates and education are a few reasons of the impact of the Columbian Exchange on both Europeans and the Americas. Americans were, and wherever they originated from, referred to as Paleo-Indians. Asians moved over a land bridge known as Beringia in the middle of Russia and Alaska at some point toward the end of the last Ice Age.

Mercantilism was the primary economic system of trade used from the 16th to 18th century. The system was based on the understanding that a nation’s wealth and power would best benefit by increasing exports and collecting metals, such as gold and silver. When Great Britain enforced the sugar and navigation Acts to increase the wealth of the nation ,it angered the American Colonists and made them dissatisfied with the British rule . The heavy taxes and restrictions , caused by the two acts , frustrated the American colonists and eventually contributed to the American Revolution . As a result of the American Revolution the colonies gained independence from Great Britain.

Columbian Exchange The Columbian Exchange is the historical swapping of peoples, animals, plants and diseases between Europeans and Indians that brought about cultural blending and a birth of a new world. However, the exchange favored Europeans as their population grew while Indians population declined since they brought in diseases like typhoid, chicken pox and malaria which wiped the Indians population who lacked natural immunity. The European plants like wheat, rice, sugarcane and barley and animals like cattle, horses, sheep, swine and chickens affected the native environment. European settlers started corn, cassava and potato farming and that resulted to a quick population growth.

The Columbian Exchange occurred between Europe and Africa (the Old World) and the Americas (the New World). The components of the exchange include animals, diseases, and plants; the exchange caused both positive and negative effects on the Old World and the New World. The Old World introduced wheat, rice, apples, horses, cattle, sheep, killing and driving off the animals, syphilis, and smallpox to the New World and impacted civilization greatly. The positive effects for the Old World include new technology, new crops and animals that helped in everyday life, raised nourishment standards and people were living longer lives.

The Columbian Exchange began after Christopher Columbus's journey in 1492. Columbus’s discovery of the new, unclaimed, fertile, and abundant land of the Americas leads to the settlement of many Europeans searching for new opportunities to thrive and prosper. The new European settlers allowed for a trade network to be established between the Old World and the New World. Opening the trade network introduced new crops, livestock, and disease to the Americas and the Old World. The spread of these new items leads to both an increase and decrease in the populations of their new habitats, as well as a profitable for the people involved in the new trade network.

Columbus, in 1492, journeyed to find the Indies but stumbled upon the Americas. With the two ‘worlds’ now connected, Columbus began exchanging items and cultures. This has been called the Columbian Exchange. During the Columbian Exchange many things were traded; Beast of burden, grains, vegetables, fruits, plants, and many diseases. All of these have had a meaningful impact on the ‘new’ and ‘old’ world, but only a few have had a large, substantial, and lasting effect on the world today.

There is never one exact event that begins a war. It is a series of events, tension simmering and building up over time until the tension boils over, fighting breaks out and there is no turning back. The Revolutionary War was simply about freedom, the fight for one 's country without another one breathing down its neck, watching its every move.

This dissertation considers the connection between British naval power and Colonial America in the eighteenth century. To be specific, I concentrate on how the navy dealt with American naval stores and the naval stores policy for its procurement of goods from 1690 to 1770. This dissertation analyses the navy’s use of naval stores both from the Baltic areas and Colonial America and the navy’s views about the naval stores policy. In the eighteenth century, the American colonies were the chief sources of masts, pitch, and tar for Britain. Therefore, the navy used them for building warships and expressed the views about these commodities.

The American Revolution began in 1775 and concluded in 1783. It was a political uprising, including 13 of Great Britain’s North American colonies, who fought for independence. This resulted in the making of the United States Of America. This event is important as it not only attracted the attention of political circles within the European continent, but it’s high success enhanced the concept of natural rights through the Western world.