Positive And Negative Impacts Of The Columbian Exchange

The Renaissance was a period in European history that triggered a region wide development in the fine arts, intellectual studies and technology. With the expansion of understanding in the fields of science, philosophy and technology and the accumulation of wealth of many European nations, it led to them to expand their own fleets and finance exploration missions throughout the world. The Columbian Exchange was a by-product of the Age of Exploration and was the transfer of plants, animals and technology between the “Old World” and the “New World”. The Columbian Exchange involved the entire modern world. Irrevocably, the Columbian Exchange helped trigger the largest population boom in world history, it led to a boom in the overall economy and

The Columbian Exchange is a term, coined by Alfred Crosby, meaning the transfer of ideas, people, products, and diseases resulting from Old World contact with Native Americans. Some goods exchanged between the New and Old Worlds include the three sisters, potatoes, wheat, tobacco, guns, languages, religion, weeds, influenza, smallpox, and human beings. While the transmission of foods to the Old World greatly contributed to population growth, there are largely more negative consequences worldwide than positive ones (3). After looking at all of the facts, one can only conclude that the Columbian Exchange had a more detrimental effect than a beneficial one.

This type of trade was called “the Columbian Exchange.” However, the Columbian exchange didn’t always benefit both the Native Americans and the Europeans. Diseases were also exchanged, specifically to the Native Americans. Whether the exchanges were positive or negative, the Columbian exchange had a huge global effect, both immediately after the exchange and long-term. The Columbian exchange caused inflation in Europe, change in hunting habits of Native Americans,change in farming habits within Europe, and a large decrease of Native American populations. The Columbian Exchange caused inflation in Europe.

My goal in this paper is to discuss both the good and the bad effects that came of the Europeans exploring and colonizing the America’s. The cultural effects that the Europeans had on Native American’s through their exploration as well as colonization were obviously great, however, it is very hard to make a generalization about this because there were many tribes in the America’s, each differently affected. In the 1570’s,

“Then there was great destruction of American Indians by war, disease, and killing work, and the importation of [African Slaves] into Spanish America was begun in order to fill the void in the labor market,” (Columbus, Document 5). This quote explains that Native Americans were dying from diseases, wars, and killing work that Europeans had to start buying slaves from Africa just to do the work of the dead Native Americans. Moreover, Native Americans did get sick, but the diseases weren’t as bad as the ones in Europe. A drastic population decrease happened from diseases which resulted in a small amount of Native Americans left. For one reason, it was common for rodents to get on ships and getting to the new land, and rodents can carry diseases.

Columbian Exchange Notes Funded by the Spanish, an explorer named Christopher Columbus set sail westwards in 1492 in search of a faster trading route to the Asias, but instead what Columbus found was a land separated from Europe for millions of years, North America. Columbus’s discovery of North America had many profound effects on the world, one of the greatest being the founding of the Columbian Exchange. The Columbian Exchange was a form of commerce between North America and Western Europe. The establishment of Columbian Exchange held both positive and negative repercussions, one positive repercussions being agricultural growth due to all the newly discovered crops and flora and one negative repercussion being the introduction of European diseases to the New world that resulted in the death of approximately70 million North American natives. After news of Columbus's discovery spread to the rest of Europe, many explorer sailed to North

Diseases had a really big impact on the population of the New World but along with that it affected the lives of every individual since there wasn’t enough knowledge of medicine and disease many people died without even knowing that they would die. The natives had never really experienced such a tragedy so they had no natural immunity to any of the diseases. Diseases spread rapidly because of this. Since a huge amount of the population was wiped out, the Europeans had less natives to use for labor and as a result of that there was a big shortage of labor. The second biggest negative impact was that of the slave trade beginning.

The most affected by the arrival of columbus were the well and higly organized as well as peaceful the Tainos. They relied on hunting, agriculture, in addition to fishing. They were divided into three distinict groups the Classic, the Eastern, and the Western. The Taino government is said to be comparable to the current political system of the United States. Indeed its due to the very fact that columbus contact with them did not only destry their history, culture and their political systems but increedibly reduced their populations drastically and those of many others by the regiments of the following europeans nations that included france, britain portugal inter alia.

Consequently, many Native Americans began to negatively view Europeans and many would view them as inferior. Another way the Europeans impacted the Native Americans was by forcing them into slavery. The Spanish would practically enslave Native Americans through various systems, such as the encomienda, repartimiento, and mita. Usually, the Native Americans could not handle the arduous workload and many would die as a result. Conquest and forced labor caused the native population to significantly decline.

The price of goods was so high and was so worthless that it cost Southerners in some places several hundred Confederate dollars to buy a single loaf. As a result hunger and no nutrient became bad, in addition, much of the land from Tennessee to Georgia and up to South Carolina had been destroyed by General William Tecumseh Sherman’s troops on their March to the Sea. Many slaves in the South effectively freed themselves by refusing to work and flocking to Union lines in droves. The North meanwhile was in many ways better off in 1864 than it had been before the war, for the economy had experienced an enormous boom during the war years and had set the industrial machine into high gear. This industrial boom in the North, coupled with inability pf Richmond’s government to provide cohesive leadership, won the war for the Union.

The worst infectious disease which annihilated almost all of the Native American people was Small Pox. Small Pox was an Old World disease which was very contagious, disfiguring, and often deadly. The people of the Americas had no exposure to this kind of disease so when it struck them, they didn’t understand what it was, or how to cure it. So, when the old world people entered Americas, they bought their plants, animals and diseases which they already had exposure to, leading to their population growth, in contrast to Americas where the population declined due to lack to exposure to Old World life. In conclusion, the Columbian exchange changed the way of life of people in both the Worlds.

There was famine; many died of hunger. They no longer drank good, pure water, but the water they drank was salty.” European records also took note of the famine and despair that they had caused, “We soldiers could scarcely get about the streets because of the Indians who were sick from hunger, pestilence and smallpox.” It was this quarantine of the city, along with the block-by-block destruction of houses that helped lead the Spanish to the capture of the city only three months after the siege

In the fifteenth century, Spain had the indication of traveling to the New World, which consisted of present-day South America along into parts of North America. The noted explorers, Columbus, Cortés, and Las Casas each had the confidence of fulfilling this expedition to the New World. Along the way each explorer encountered different experiences with the indigenous people including their values and beliefs. The explorers’ eyes were open to a new world and experienced many hardships. However, the explorers came across great colonization’s of the New World, including trading routes and goods, along with the discovering of new plants and animals.