Domesticable Animals In European Empires

The goat was the first ruminant to be domesticated. A ruminant is an animal that has more than one compartment in the stomach. Goats began arriving in Plymouth in 1623. In A History of Domesticated Animals, goats were a good source for milk, meat, hides, and some

Livestock and agriculture grown in Europe became important as the Columbian Exchange slowly overtook the Americas. Water and wind were harnessed for power on farms, and domesticated animals were a crucial element of farm life also. Pigs and sheep were the main source of meat and leather. Mules pulled

People of the Old World had domesticated pigs, horses, sheep, and cattle(1), which had acted as pathogens to infect the Europeans with diseases. In addition, diseases were constantly circulated with centuries of war, exploration, and city building. During the process of natural selection, disease-intolerant

• Houses were stronger, they had an enhanced diet, brought more livestock, and used manure for fertilizer for better crops.

The New world gave the Old world many riches and foods. This allowed the European Culture to expand into more of an agricultural country, allowing the population to rise. Although the New world did receive an abundance of plaques and illnesses from the Old, it also gave the Old world syphilis. Giving the Europeans their first lethal sexually transmitted illness. Both the Native Americans and the Europeans had suffered from illness and disease. With the ships the Europeans had brought over the ocean they had along with them animals including horses, cows and pigs. This allowed the Natives to travel more on horseback and instead of hunting they could raise

- The llamas were unable to carry much weight for long durations, so when horses were introduced, it was revolutionary and led to more global trade

Animals started to dominate the New World due to most of the Indians dyeing off from disease. The animals were not affected by the diseases that the Europeans/Spanish brought so they were left to roam around in grasslands. These animals however, would

The diseases the Europeans brought with them affected the indigenous negatively because it killed a large portion of the population in a painful way. The Natives had very little diseases before the Europeans invaded their land. Unlike people in the Old World, the Natives did not farm cattle or pigs and did not live near the animals they did have. They never had the opportunity to develop immunities to diseases that the cattle and Europeans carried when they came upon their shores. The diseases spread quickly and attacked the indigenous in gruesome ways. Smallpox caused sores to erupt on their skins that were so painful that an Aztec account states that “[the sick] could only lie on their beds like corpses” (Document 4). The pain would not

Europeans brought diseases to the Americas, such as smallpox and measles. The original descendants did not bring the diseases because they traveled through the cold and they had no domesticated animals. Many of these diseases were caused by domesticated animals. At

The Europeans were said to be thoroughly diseased by the time Columbus set sail on his first voyage (Cowley, 1991). Through the domestication of such animals as pigs, horses, sheep, and cattle, the Europeans exposed themselves to a vast array of pathogens which continued to be spread through wars, explorations, and city-building. Thus any European who crossed the Atlantic was immune to such diseases as measles and smallpox because of battling them as a child.

Europeans brought with them diseases that were foreign to indigenous populations and animals that had negative effects on the surrounding landscapes. Diseases such as smallpox, the plague, and typhus were common in past European society, causing the populations to eventually build up an immunity and resistance against these diseases. However, these diseases were unknown to indigenous populations, causing there to be no resistance, ultimately resulting in disastrous consequences. 90% of the indigenous population, equaling around 80 to 100 million people, were killed because of these diseases. European animals and livestock were also brought over to the new world, animals like horses and pigs helped indigenous societies by means of transportation and food source.

When Columbus came from Spain and took a trip heading for the Americas, he brought over horses, rats, and pigs. With the Spanish bring over the horses it impacted the New World by them becoming very important in battles. In battles it gave the Spanish an advantage because they sat high above the ground, they could move very fast and the horses terrified the natives of the land. The horses also impacted the Spanish when they were in the new world because the horses are an important way to carry information for the explorers. The horses eventually multiplied so much that there started to be wild horses running around the Americas. The pigs impacted the explorers in the new world by giving them meat to eat. Pigs were the main meat source because they can adapt easily and they reproduced many offspring. The cattle were important because they were the main export from the New World. They were killed for meat and their hides. The colonists killed the cattle and sent the hides back to the Old World so they could make money. The rats, especially the black rat, came across to the New World by accident. They would come across the colonial ports and stowaway on ships. The rats carried a disease that plagued the colonists. The disease is called Bubonic Plague and Typhus. This plague affected the Natives in America because the plague killed off the animals that the natives depended on for living. All these animals impacted the New World in a negative way because they grazed so much that the colonists needed to move them to a place with a lot of

Diamond goes into incredible detail, especially in his chapter “The Lethal Gift of Livestock” of his proposed history of germs in relation to humans. He considers the difference in domesticated animals in the old world and new world, attributes their power to the downfall of the Incan and Aztec empires when he writes, “...the most advanced native societies of North America...their destruction was accomplished largely by germs alone.”(373-373, Diamond) It is fact that populations

Physically, Europeans were more advanced in weapons and disease prevention. Making advances in medicine was very important because, malaria was a prevalent disease that killed many Europeans, discouraging colonies to be made in Africa. Now learning how to combat it was

The Roman culture showcases an aggressive relationship towards natural elements, especially animals. Wild beasts, according to Romans must be destroyed. This destruction, however, is related to the amusement of the human being. Animals were hunted for no practical reason. Hunting becomes a sport that is ordinary and luxurious at the same time.