Native American Biological Exchange Essay

Illnesses such as smallpox killed the majority of Native American populations significantly weakening the Naive Americans allowing for Europeans to more easily conquer them. The transfer of crops from the Americas to Europe allowed for a more population growth and shaped their cuisine to this day. Potatoes and native to the Americas yet they are and were a staple of European diets, most notably the Irish. European discovery of resources in the Americas led to millions of African slaves being shipped to the Americas to work in mines or plantations. This widespread slave trade has influences race relations to this day.

One of the most interesting questions to ponder: is can a link be drawn directly to show the causation of why and when countries adopted customs or habits that are now fundamental in the present day. With secondary sources, these correlations can be shown and provide statistics as proof, based upon analysis of important primary sources. The journal article The Columbian Exchange: A History of Disease, Food and Ideas is a secondary source detailing what occurred in the years after the voyage of Columbus and how both the New World and the Old World were affected during this period of colonization. An interesting perspective was given in this paper, unlike many others that describe the same topic, in which the authors chose to focus on how the Old World was affected more so than what transpired in the areas being colonized. There was an extravagant biological exchange of both crops and disease, which provided serious lifestyle changes for both Europeans and the native people of the Americas, and there were also consequences elsewhere in the world associated with the Columbus exchange in the years after its commencement. Secondary sources are also very important to historians and this is a source that is very well written, backed up by diagrams and detailed evidence found in primary sources.

Culture wasn’t the only thing that the Europeans brought over to the Americas. Along with their customs and rules, came the diseases that the Native American’s have never been exposed to. The Europeans brought many communicable diseases such as small pox and measles which were transmitted to the Native Americans through trade goods or someone infected with them. This quickly annihilated most of the Native American population.

There is data to suggest that around the beginning of the 16th Century, there were approximately 18 million Native Americans living in North America. By 1900 the population of the Indigenous peoples had declined to about 250,000. The common belief has been that this rapid decrease in population has been due to the disease that Europeans brought with them when they migrated to the “new world”. Historian Alfred W. Crosby writes that “it is highly probable that the greatest killer was epidemic disease, especially as manifested in virgin soil epidemics.” Many reports and essays focus on disease as the main killer of the Indigenous population, but few often look at how the European and Indigenous population responded to disease. The questions

- The Columbian Exchange was a worldwide transfer of plants, animals, and diseases. Before Columbian Exchanged certain foods were not in European meals such as, corn, potatoes, and different kinds of beans – (kidney, lima), peanuts, and peppers. The same for the Native Americans, certain foods were not a part of the culture such as, rice, wheat, barley, oats, melons, Kentucky bluegrass, and dandelions. The diseases the European’s as well as the slaves carried over, they effected the Native Americans greatly and caused millions to die. These diseases consisted of smallpox’s,

Many years ago, there was a world drift that carried the Old and New Worlds apart, which made a split between the North and South. The separation lasted so long it caused the development of rattlesnakes on one side of the Atlantic and vipers on the other. After 1492, human voyagers had their artificial establishment of connections through the Old and New World plants, animals, and bacteria, which was known as the Columbian Exchange. The exchange is the ecological events of the past millennium.The Columbian Exchange had a widespread exchange of animal, plants, culture including slaves, diseases, and ideas between the eastern and western hemispheres. The exchange was the most significant event concerning ecology, agriculture, and culture in history. The Europeans were the first who touched the shores of the Americas. Old World crops such as wheat, barley, rice, and turnips had not traveled west across the Atlantic. The New World crops such as maize, white potatoes, sweet potatoes, and manioc had not traveled east to Europe. Americas did not have horses, cattle, sheep, or goats, or animals of the Old World. The New World had no relations with the animals that were part of the Old World. The New World did not have the pathogens associated with the Old World’s populations of humans and creatures like chickens, cattle and mosquitoes. There were the germs that carried smallpox, measles, chickenpox, influenza and malaria.

When the Europeans made their first conquests of the Americas, they were greeted with a whole new environment of flora, fauna, people, and cultures. Likewise, the Native Americans were introduced to a people that in many ways were vastly different from themselves who brought with them new ideas, diseases, and technologies. Their interactions within the Americas would change both their own lives and cultures as well as the very environments they lived in. Indeed, European contact with Native Americans introduced the Europeans to a new world while creating a new world for the Native Americans. Their interactions would develop through the social and environmental developments of the Columbian Exchange, slavery, and Christianity.

The exchanges made between the Natives and the Europeans are numerous. From a biological standpoint, DNA, microbes, plants, and animals were exchanged. Although taboo, Natives and Europeans did mate and swapped genetics which could benefit the children produced. Genetic diversity is extremely important to the survival of offspring. While the exchange of microbes was a tragic one, it’s still vital to history. It decimated the population of the First Peoples. This allowed the Europeans to take over even more. Plants and animals were also important trades. New foods were introduced to both sides. This could have helped farming technology and the amount of food production. However, invasive species like weeds were also introduced which could harm

On one hand Europeans found in the New World the solution for their problems. The abundance of naturals resources such as plants, fruits, vegetable and animals that they never know brought trade and cultural exchanges between Europe, Asia, and Africa. These positive effects increased the power that Europeans need to dominate and control the trade among other countries and colonize the new land. in addition, Europeans not only dominated the items exchange among others countries, but also they supply the need of workforce by slaving people from West Africa. On the other hand, Native American had some advantages

Europeans began to race to the New World in the pursuit of matching Spain’s successes. Upon arrival, Native Americans greeted the Europeans with responses

After the Europeans moved into North America, by the 1900’s there were less than 300,000 Native Americans in North America. The Europeans started expanding into North America and there were a lot reasons for the many deaths of the Native Americans. The colonists looking for gold did ambushes on tribal villages. Disease was one of them, it spread

Historically the treatment of Native Americans has been highly problematic, especially throughout the colonization of the New World. Although, when colonising some Europeans took a merciful and sympathetic approach to the Native Americans, generally the treatment towards the indigenous people was not humane. Not only did the Native Americans die at the hand of the settlers, they also died from diseases that had been brought to the new world by explorers for which they had no immunity. In some cases diseases such as smallpox wiped out entire tribes. Together, the introduction of diseases and the actions of the European settlers had devastating effects on the Native Americans.

Christopher Columbus’ discovery of the Americas set the precedent for the European conquest of it. In fact, his tactics of taking land, wealth, and labor from the indigenous populations were carried out by many of the Europeans who later came to the Americas. King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain, whose country eventually benefited from this endeavor, financially supported Columbus. However, not all people included benefited from Columbus’ ‘discovery’ of the Americas. It also led to the decimation of several populations of indigenous peoples. Bartlomé de Las Casas provided a first hand account of the Spanish conquest of Hispaniola. In his account, Las Casas states “the multitude of people who had originally lived on [Hispaniola]… was consumed at such a rate that in those eight years ninety percent had perished.” Furthermore, Adam Smith reported that “to the natives, however… all the commercial benefits which can have resulted from [the discovery of America] have been sunk and lost in the dreadful misfortunes which they have occasioned.” Through comparing these sources from different time periods and regions, we can confirm that Columbus’ discovery of the Americas led to drastic consequences for the Native Americans, whilst improving the quality of life and economic standing for Europeans.

brought was death. Bartolomé de Las Casas noted “so that from 1494 to 1508, over three million people had perished from war, slavery, and the mines” ("Effects of European Colonization: Christopher Columbus and Native Americans"). This was primarily due to European domesticated animals such as: pigs, sheep, horses, cows, and goats. To create a great epidemic of diseases America had never witnessed before. Horrible diseases which the ingenious population had no immunity for, smallpox, typhus, influence, diphtheria, and measles. “Modern historians commonly accept that around 90% of all Native Americans died as a result of contact with Europeans” ("Effects of European Colonization: Christopher Columbus and Native Americans").

Native Americans in the United States were subject to military and colonial expansion policies and relocation that killed millions of Indians. Violence combined with exposure to disease killed 95 percent of the American Indian population between 1492 and 1900, the worst demographic collapse in human history.[2] Scholarly debates have not resolved whether these deaths can be officially defined as genocide because of questions over the intent of