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How Did The Columbian Exchange Affect The New World

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The Columbian Exchange, which started around 1492, led to modern industrialization by introducing both the Old and New World new items of trading and diseases. Many of the items brought from England to the Americas had improved the people’s lives, yet there were events that physically affected most of the indigenous people. After discovering the Americas, a prosperous trading system was introduced making Europe one of the greatest commercial and maritime powers in the world. This system was called the Columbian Exchange which began with Christopher Columbus’ arrival to the New World. Many of the items that the Old world introduced to the New World consisted of “wheat, barley, rice, and turnips,” and many of the items the New World introduced …show more content…

Animals were also brought to the New World some consisting of “horses, cattle, sheep, and goats,” all having to do with Old World origins (Crosby). Many of the pathogens introduced to the New World from the Old World physically affected many of the changes that make up the Columbian Exchange itself. Because the indigenous people had no previous contact with diseases from the Old World they were “immunologically defenseless” (Nunn and Qian). With the exchange of diseases, many of the indigenous people living in the Americas were killed off, leaving not enough people to cultivate enough goods in order for trade to prosper. Among these diseases were “smallpox, measles, chickenpox, influenza, malaria, and yellow fever” (Crosby). This led to the introduction of the triangular slave trade. While discovering the Americas, Europe had been exploring other parts of the world too. Europeans used Africans from Africa to work in the Americas, because of the low population densities, for low wage income and to cultivate the goods that were later taken to Europe. This allowed more inter-connectedness of the Eastern and Western Hemispheres even though they were mostly dominated by

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