Contributions Of Europeans To The Columbian Exchange

The European conquest of America began as an offshoot of the quest for a sea route to India, China, and the islands of the East Indies, the source of the silk, tea, spices, porcelain, and other luxury goods on which international trade in the early modern era centered. Profit and piety-the desire to eliminate Islamic middlemen and win control of the lucrative trade for Christian Western Europe-combined to inspire the quest for a direct route to Asia. Long before Columbus sailed, Europeans had dreamed of a land of abundance, riches, and ease beyond the western horizon. They hoped America would bring them a

When the Europeans explored the Americas, they were introduced to new plants, foods, and animals, as well as riches and land. Foods such as corn, white and sweet potatoes, beans, tomatoes, cacao, fruits,

After the discovery of the New World, a new era opened that would come to be known as the Columbian Exchange. With the transfer of plants, animals, culture, diseases, and ideas between Europe and the Americas, good came from the Columbian Exchange which became a possibility after Christopher Columbus set sail in 1492, giving him full credit for this duration.

The innovation of maritime technology has revolutionized travel throughout history. Prior to ships and sea travel, humans were separated by vast oceans and confined to their homeland for life. Because of these large boundaries, discoveries and inventions were only shared within land masses and trade as a whole was very limited. This uncharted, inaccessible territory caused a major separation of mankind. However, these oceans sparked curiosity and desire for explorers to venture beyond their native land. This curiosity was the driving force to the invention of naval travel, a highly important and massive step for all growing communities during the Age of Exploration. Maritime technology’s advancements through history greatly aided in the Age of Exploration, allowing provinces to break their land boundaries and make monumental steps towards the advanced world humans populate today.

The Columbian Exchange began in 1492 with the landing of Christopher Columbus in the New World because he was searching for an all-water trade route to the precious spices in Asia. As with any new discovery of land, positive and negative effects occurred. Negatives included the spread of disease and slavery, whereas positives consisted of better education, the upward mobility of social classes, and the spread of Western Civilization in the New World.

The Columbian Exchange is a huge exchange of goods and ideas between the old world and the new world. The old world is considered Europe, Asia and Africa and the new world is considered America. Their colonies started to trade with each other and that’s when they formed the Columbian Exchange. Many countries were involved in this trade, including China, Africa and Italy. The exchange of the new ideas, traditions, food, religion and diet changed cultures everywhere. The Natives gave and received many items. Even though Europeans and American Indians saw some similarities in each other, their words differed. The introduction of plants into the new world extended a process that had been taking place for centuries in the Old World. Trade

Much of the new technology that they brought over, however, was borrowed from various people and cultures along their travels. Some of these new technologies include the compass, which they used to figure out which direction they were travelling, and the astrolabe, which aided the sailors in trying to find out how far north or south they were from the equator. Another borrowed technology that greatly benefitted the Europeans on their travels was cartography; this is the science of map making. This was probably one of the most beneficial discoveries to the Europeans because it allowed them to draw out where they had been and where they were

The shape and geography of the Americas was formed over hundreds of millions of years by processes including continental drifting and the Great Ice Age. Through the exposure of the Bering Land Bridge, early immigrants reached the Americas and created diverse populations and cultures. Agriculture, especially the cultivation of corn/maize, played an important role in these early civilizations. European desires for Asian goods sparked an interest in finding a faster route to Asia, which led Christopher Columbus to land in the New World. The Columbian Exchange transformed life in both the New and Old Worlds with the introduction of new animals, plants, and diseases. With Spain and Portugal leading, the European countries began

In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue to find a route to Asia, but what he discovered was actual a whole new world. When Columbus set sail he was on his way to find a safer, faster, and more efficient way to India and Asia. In theory, traveling west without the knowledge of land and the accurate size of the Earth would have been a bright idea. Although, the Earth was much larger than thought and there were other lands that people in Europe had no idea about. When Cristopher Columbus set out to India westward he had to have some type of navigation to keep him on track. The two main navigational tools he used were dead reckoning and celestial navigation.

About 100 years ago, George McJunkin discovered large ancient Bison bones with man-made arrow heads in them. This is evidence that humans that humans have been in North America for at least 10,000 years. About 6,000 years ago, humans began to make pottery. This was a sign of settlement. Around this time people began to use agriculture as a food source. In the 1490s, the first Europeans arrived to North America. At this time, Europe was not a great place to live. Europe was in the Dark Ages. This is when the Bubonic Plague happened. After the Reconquista, at the end of the 1400s, Christopher Columbus wanted to sail to west Asia, so he proposed a plan to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain. They accepted his plan, and Columbus set sail in 1492. In October, he spotted an island and claimed procession for Spain, even though there were people already there. Shortly after this, The Columbian Exchange began to take place. This was the exchange of things between new and old worlds. The Europeans brought many diseases to the New World, which caused epidemics to race throughout the Indian population.

With the colonies in Africa and South America and the Caribbean that cut down on the need for Europeans to travel to China and Japan and Southeast Asia. Africa’s gold coast, settled by the Portuguese meant that they didn’t need to travel to Asia to get gold and other metals. With the Spanish settlements in South America and in the Caribbean also meant that they didn’t need to travel to Asia for spices, gold and silver. By using their own spices they eliminated the need to travel through Muslim land to get to China and East Asia and this was a massive factor for traveling to the Americas, to avoid having to use Muslim occupied

European power beginning with Portugal developed new sailing technology and established regular routes across the ocean as they sought out the coast of Asia, Africa and other opportunities for extended trades. The Europeans developed relationships with Islanders and other people they encountered but their focus was on African continents. They were the source of gold, food and supply of slaves. Slaves were the most important export of Africa to the new world because of the labor they could bring.

The main motivation of European exploration was economic motives. People were beginning to become more interested in traveling by sea to reach Asia and Africa and all their riches(Duiker,494). The spice trade was what linked Europe to Asia, and the gold trade linked Europe to Africa. Furthermore, in the 15th and 16th centuries, as the economy and purchasing power of Europe developed and increased, the spice demand grew at a steady rate(Arnold,12). Therefore, spices were one of the few things that made overseas trade possible. Europe did not have very much gold to begin with, so ultimately the gold mines that they did possess were emptied. After 1400, Europe started trading with the areas that produced gold, increasing their amount of gold. Gold was very important to Europe, because not only was it used for decorations, but also their currency. In 1500, Portugal was controlling the flow of gold to Europe, making Portugal much wealthier(Buckler,500). Eventually, slaves were included in the gold

Sailed west into the Atlantic thinking that he was heading toward Japan, when he reached Cuba he thought it was China

When he was grown and serving on Portuguese ships, Magellan argued with the King of Portugal about trying to find a way around the entire globe by water. Magellan wanted to reach the Spice Islands of Indonesia by taking a certain route. King Manuel didn't agree with Magellan and refused to pay for him to try. So, Magellan turned to Spain who liked the idea. Asia was an important