How Did The Transoceanic Trade And Its Impact On American Culture

They became as important as wheat and rice. After they were settled down, people could not imagine their lives without those accustomed crops. Because of no necessity in cultivated soil, potato and corn grew well almost everywhere. Those crops saved lives of huge numbers of European poor people. Pigs and cattle were feed, which led to the increase of meat on the markets. The population of Europe and Asia grew tremendously since potato and maize were first introduced to the people. “Between 1650 and 1750, the population of Europe, including Asiatic Russia, increased from 103 million to 144; the population of Asia, excluding Russia, increased from 327 million to 475 million” (Stearns et al.

While European advantage was evident, the consequences of the transmittal of plants, animals, and diseases could not have been forseen. The Spanish conquistador Cortés advised the King of Spain to send all ships with plants and animals (Grennes 2007). This recommendation comes from the large quantities of land suitable for farming crops that were in demand in Europe, such as sugar. Crops of the New World required different soil composition, weather and growing season demands, and cultivation techniques than Old World crops. Growth of crops from the Old and New World (in many, but not all cases) complemented rather than competed with each other. This is due to the large North/South span of both

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.

The Columbian Exchange is the exchange of plants, animals, food, and diseases between Europe and the Americas. In 1492, when Christopher Columbus came to America, he saw plants and animals he had never seen before so he took them back with him to Europe. Columbus began the trade routes which had never been established between Europe and the Americas so his voyages initiated the interchange of plants between the Eastern and Western Hemispheres, which doubled the food crop resources available to people on both sides of the Atlantic.

In the new world, Europeans encountered indigenous plant foods cultivated by Native Americas. These plants were potatoes, beans, corn, tobacco, and cocoa. The potato is especially important because it’s known for one of the main foods for Ireland. The European’s influenced oats and barley etc. Domesticated animals as pigs, chickens, sheep, and ox were also brought to the Americas. Horses were also brought to the new world which was a new tool for hunting and used for military.

The long-term effects of the Columbian exchange included the swap of food, crops, and animals between the New World and Old World, and the start of the transoceanic trade. In order to produce a profit, Portuguese explorers were the first to established sugar cane plantations in Brazil. They then sold this crop to the Old World where it was a popular commodity because it provided Europeans with a sweetener for foods. In addition, European produce was brought to the New World, including “…wheat, vines, horses, cattle, pigs, sheep, goats, and chickens… Where they sharply increased supplies of food and animal energy.” This fusion of crops between the Old and New World became fundamental in enhancing the diets and food of both populations.

The Columbian Exchange was perhaps one of the first environmentally detrimental event in American history. This exchange refers to the trade of food, goods, and disease between the Old World, referring to the eastern hemisphere, and the New World, referring to the Americas. The New World had many things to contribute such as potatoes, maize, tomatoes, and chili peppers, which shaped the culinary of both Europe and Asia (Nun 163). Additionally, Europe introduced domesticated animals such as horses, cattle, cats, and dogs to the Americas.

Through the Columbian Exchange, the Indians brought potatoes to the Old World, which proved as a useful crop because you didn't have to take them out of the ground until you were ready to eat them. The Europeans brought over horses, pigs, sheep, and cattle to the New World. These animals flourished in the New World because they all were able to produce without having to worry about predators. The Europeans also brought sugar cane and bananas to the New World. These crops and livestock helped to make the New World a more diverse living space for the Europeans and the

What many people only know about Christopher Columbus’s expedition is that he found the Americas. While this is true, he did find a completely new frontier that was unknown to the Old World, his findings re-shaped global consumption patterns from the seventeenth century. He found a New World filled with resources that the old world hasn’t seen before. When he found the new world he brought with him European plants and animal species that were foreign to the citizens of the New World. The Columbian Exchange introduced many foods that are still essential to consumption in today’s world along with the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries. The potato is a prime example of how the Columbian Exchange changed global consumption patterns because it was nutritious and had an abundant amount of calories in it and caused a mass population increase in areas where the potato was available. The use of slaves also increased exponentially when sugar cane was introduced. This was a very cheap, productive way to produce a large amount of sugar and it was used by many Old World countries. The findings of these new world products created a rise in global consumption and production because products were introduced to the both the New World and the Old World and there instantly became a large spike in the availability of products. Along with this, the old world decided to go out and get themselves involved in the New World because they saw an opportunity

This sugar was sent to Europe, and was a very prominent trade item from the Americas to Europe. Several crops, including potatoes, corn, maize, and cassava changed the Old World drastically, increasing the population to sizes it had never previously been. These crops originated in the new world, but caught on very quickly in the Old World for their quick growth and high calorie per acre value. Another large crop export of the New World was tobacco.

After the discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus in 1492, this sparked the interests of the Columbian Exchange. This was a global network that allowed for the transfer of ideas, plants, animals, and diseases between America and the Old World. Although hindering the developments of societies around the world with diseases, the Columbian Exchange mostly aided these advancements with its trade of crops and silver and technological advances.

After the Spanish settled in America, many new foods and species of plants were introduced to the people of Eurasia, none of which they had said before. Although most of the exchange of food was from the New World to the Old World, Eurasia also introduced the America’s to wheat and grapes, two very important foods for mass. Potatoes and corn were a major part of the Columbian Exchange as they provided a lot of nutrition and were very easy to grow. They could grow in soil that was previously useless for agriculture. Other foods that spread across Europe were tomatoes, peppers, chocolate, beans, pineapples, avocados and blueberries. This exchange of food was the main reason that the worlds population doubled from 545,000,000 in 1600 to 1,128,000,000 in 1850 and historians often describe this massive increase in the nutritional value and variety of

Population, values, and foreign relations were all affected by the crops involved in the Columbian Exchange and the Transatlantic trade. First, new crops came to Europe in the Columbian Exchange. This resulted in access to many new, more efficient crops such as potatoes. Producing a very high amount of food per acre, potatoes were a true superfood for Europeans. In response, quality and quantity of European life both skyrocketed.

Crops were transported over from the New World, such as Potatoes, tomatoes, squashes, pumpkins, beans, and other vegetables that drastically changed the European diet. Before the arrival of said plants the European diet relied on grain, mostly wheat, even this was hard to come by as there was not land to farm on. Cargo ships coming from the New World brought other resources needed for the growing industrial Europe, ship timbers, hemp rope, tar, furs, dyes such as indigo and red Brazil wood, dried fish, flaxseed oil, hides, and a mass of other materials.

In Kenneth F. Kiple’s Chapter 14 and 15 of his book, A Movable Feast he explains the Columbian exchange through his point of view. Chapter 14 gives us a look at the items transferred from the new world back over to the old. Kiple points out that Europe originally struggled with the acceptance of many of the food stuffs that came over from America (Kiple pg. 136). Europe had many fears and worries related to the attempt of trying the food sent over from the Americas. After Europeans got over their initial fear of the new world food they began to see how greatly it could benefit them. Kiple shares the extreme benefits potatoes had on Europe in his chapter 14. He also recognized the squash, pumpkin, turkey, and various other food stuffs from America that soon gained acceptance in Europe (Kiple 138-141). Kiple explains that all these new foods impacted the calorie intake of the Europeans as well as resulted in a population growth. Food that made its way from America to Africa also had the same results, Africa like Europe experienced a rapid growth in population. Kiple recognizes that although population growth sounds good it can also soon result in food scarcity, which is what it did until these old world countries became more willing to accept new American food, learn how to grow and prepare it, and in result prosper (Kiple pg. 143-145). Chapter 15 of Kiple’s book highlights the old world foods that made it to new world territory through the Columbian exchange. The territory of Oceania had nothing to offer the old world. Most of where their foods came from were sent over from the old world (Kiple pg. 153). On the other hand, we already know from the previous chapter that America had lots to offer the old world and the