Columbian Exchange Essay

The Columbian Exchange, derived from the voyages of Columbus to the Americas, was a chapter in history that connected the Old World to the New World by exchanging crops, culture, and technology. The Columbian Exchange in the Western Hemisphere resulted in extensive demographic, social, economic, and environmental changes. The arrival of Europeans to Native American land produced an intense mixture of culture and population fluctuation. Not only did this exchange affect the social aspect between the two nations, it changed the way people engaged in trade and proprietary interests, which would lead to a massive destruction and transformation of the environment.

The Columbian Exchange has been called the “greatest human intervention in nature since the invention of agriculture” (Grennes 2007). The exchange of diseases, plants, and animals lead to a global cultural and economic shift throughout the Old and New Worlds following Christopher Columbus' 'discovery' of the Americas in 1492. The Eastern Hemisphere saw an influx of raw materials, new staple crops, and the income from and production of growing crops that were too resource intensive for Europe and Asia. The Western Hemisphere saw large scale population shifts, massive devastation accompanying colonization, and a significant change in the ecosystem with the introduction of new, sometimes invasive, plants and animals. This 'exchange' had one

One consequence of the exchange was mass death. In the search for new routes for trade, people of Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas came in contact with each other, causing the spread of disease. Columbus's colonization brought a host of new diseases to the populations of the Americas. Europeans exported their diseases such as influenza, tuberculosis and smallpox. In return, European traders and colonizers returned the Europe with syphilis and typhus from the Americas. The slave trade caused the spread of malaria and yellow fever from Africa to the Caribbean and North America, and yellow fever to Europe.

The Colombian Exchange was an extensive exchange between the eastern and western hemispheres as knows as the Old World and New World. The Colombian exchange greatly affects almost every society. It prompted both voluntary and forced migration of millions of human beings. There are both positive and negative effects that you can see from the Colombian Exchange. The Colombian Exchange explorers created contact between Europe and the Americas. The interaction with Native Americans began the exchange of animals, plants, disease, and weapons. The most significant effects that the Colombian Exchange had on the Old World and New World were its changes in agriculture, disease, culture, and its effects on ecology.

It was the year 1492, and a man by the name of Christopher Columbus set sail from Spain where he then landed in the present day Americas, sparking one of the most important events in the world, the Columbian exchange. The Columbian exchange has shaped the world to what it is today with the exchange of goods from the Old World to the New World, and vice versa. The Columbian exchange caused numerous short and long-term effects in the Americas and many other parts of the world.

According to Adam Smith, the “discovery” of the Americas was “one of the most important events recorded in the history of mankind”. While Adam Smith could not have known the complete consequences, both positive and negative, of Columbus’s discovery of New World at the time that he wrote his book The Wealth of Nations in 1776, he already saw the immense amount of change and growth that had occurred in the Americas and the rest of the world since Columbus’s “discovery” in 1492. There were huge changes in the attitudes of Europeans and Indians, along with many physical changes, both of which contributed to the feelings of progress and have led to the way that the world is today.

The Columbian Exchange marks a big turning point in American history because it introduced new diseases, plants, animals, and changed the global economy between Europe and North America. When the Europeans arrived in North America, the Natives were not ready for their coming. The Europeans brought with them many diseases including Smallpox, Syphilis, Polio, Hepatitis, and Encephalitis. The Native Americans had no immunity to these diseases so their population was quickly decimated. The diseases brought by the Europeans were also very communicable which made the disease spread much faster. Both Europeans and Native Americans suffered from the diseases that were spread between the two worlds, but Europeans didn’t undergo

The Columbian Exchange was a major milestone in the diffusion of the New and Old World. In 1492, Columbus arrived in the Bahamas(2), where he first came in contact with Native Americans. There, both exchanged their cultures such as crops, animals, metals, and germs, hence the name, Colombian Exchange. This has brought about both positive and negative effects. While some negative impacts are exemplified by the near-genocide of Amerindians, the demerits are outweighed by the benefits of this historical exchange, including the international diversity of ethnicity, and increased global population.

The Columbian Exchange took cultural diversities and made America. It introduced biological, economic and cultural impact with drastic consequences. It is considered too had changed years of evolution.

In “The Columbian Exchange: A History of Disease, Food, and Ideas,” the authors point out that there were two channels in the transfer of food crops. One are unknown tropical spcies from the New World, which has affected on the growth of local cuisines. They are rich in calories and improving taste and vitamin intake. Otherwise, the Old World also brought certain crops. America gave a plenty of land that helped response the high food demand, and became the main supplies for Old World markets. In this way, they unknowingly carried many Old World diseases, such as smallpox, meales, and other diseases. They were unfamiliar to the Native America and they never had developed immunity to such disease. By the early 1600’s, the population of Indians decreased nearly 90%. Furthermore, Columbus’ sailors encountered sexually with native women Indians so that they brought the deadly bacteria unwittingly back to Europe. This reason led slavery system traded from Africa for labor requirement for cotton and tobacco plantation

- 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,

Land was becoming scarce in Europe, and sailing to the west has always been a dream to Europeans (Document 5). So even if Columbus was not able to take the journey someone else would have quickly took his place, and vaccines still would not be invented to help the Natives. It is important to have an open mind while looking at the Columbian Exchange just as the author of Document 7 did because the Spanish did subjugate the natives to slavery in the econdmendia system, but the deaths due to that were not nearly as much as deaths due to

During the age of exploration, travelers from Spain struck extreme luck with the discovery of large silver deposits in the Americas. Sparked by the desire to find a new trade route and to escape the disease of Europe, explorers set out and happened to find an untouched, resource rich land; the Americas. Throughout the period of 1450 CE to 1750 CE, silver largely changed the economies and trade in Europe and Asia both positively and negatively. While the discovery of silver by the Spanish in the Americas brought significant positive economic change in the form of wealth to the Spanish and Chinese governments, it also created negative economic changes in the Americas which led to slavery of the native peoples promoted by the desire to obtain

When Europeans began coming to the New World to explore it in 1492, they encountered the Native Americans. The Native Americans at that time were known as “Indians.” The Europeans and the Native Americans started an exchange. This exchange is known as the Columbian Exchange. This exchange has changed our history forever because of how it affected the Native Americans.

Starting with Columbus in 1492, European countries (Spain, England, France, and Netherlands) began colonizing the New World in search of greater economic opportunity. As a result of the Columbian Exchange, a wide variety of animals, plants, and culture were traded between the New and Old Worlds, but causing widespread sickness among the Native American population.