Short And Long Term Effects Of The Columbian Exchange

The Columbian exchange began a long time ago when Columbus first arrived on a tiny island around the Bahamas in 1492. When he and his people arrived they linked people, plants, animals, and germs from Europe, Africa, and the Americas. This exchange of plants and animals transformed European, American, Asian, and African ways of life. The Columbian Exchange had vast amounts of short and long term effects on the people already in America, and the people venturing to America. These effects were both good and bad to both sides of the equation. This astonishing discovery of the “New World” by Christopher Columbus, and the eventful Columbian Exchange it all started, changed the world forever.

After Columbus discovered this New World, other explorers

When the Europeans interacted with the Native Americans it led to huge cultural changes.

There were many foods each nation did not have before the Columbian Exchange. Foods that had never been seen before by people, became staples of their diets because of new growing regions that opened for crops. The Europeans had no potatoes, corn, sweet potatoes, or turkey. The Native Americans had no coffee, oranges, rice, or wheat. Previously unknown foods were taken back to Europe, and familiar foods were brought to the Americas by colonists.

Europeans, Africans, and Asians brought many diseases to the New World. These diseases infected many Native Americans and wiped out a huge part of the population. The New World did bring a few diseases to Europe to. Before regular communication had been established between the two hemispheres, the varieties of dominating diseases were strikingly larger in the Old World than in the New World. This led, in part, to the devastating effects of Old World diseases on Native American population. The smallpox epidemic probably resulted in the greater death toll in Native Americans. Scarcely any society on Earth remained unaffected by this global ecological

The Europeans developed a new economic policy called mercantilism the nation's strength depended on its wealth. Wealthy nations had power for military and they expanded influence. For one nation to become wealthier they had to take wealth from another nation. This caused competition between nations. The European nations worked to become more self sufficient. Nations that could control their own sources did not need to import from competing nations.

The diet of Western Europeans changed because of new technologies in food packaging, the development of new breeds in livestock, the use of the first food preservatives, and the introduction of new foods from the Americas.

European powers wanted to establish colonies to control sources of raw materials, and to provide new markets for manufactured goods. To the Mercantilists, colonies only existed to benefit their home country. Monarchs restricted economic activities in the colonies. The colonists could not sell raw materials to other countries or buy manufactured goods from other nations. Strict laws forbade the colonies to manufacture goods. They were forced to buy only from their home