North America Environmental Changes

on the New World was both beneficial and destructive. An example of both was the trade of new plants and agriculture. The trade of these items worked two ways. First, new plants and ideas were shipped outside to Europe from the New World. Accounts from explorers and travelers such as Christopher Columbus and Hernando Cortez explain that the crops and animals in the New World were fulfilling and plentiful, exactly what they needed in their homelands. (Doc 1 and 2) Second, Europe brought their own agriculture and goods to the New World; things they could not live without. In an illustration from the Codex Florentino, ships of Hernando Cortez are being eagerly unloaded onto the shores of Mexico, signifying the trade from the Old World to the New. (Doc 5) The trade of such goods was important to the diet and changing society of the natives living in the New World. However, the trade was possibly more destructive than good. In Alfred Crosby’s description of plant exchange, he finds that most plants that are invasive ad destructive to the natural environment of

The Columbian Exchange was one of the most significant periods in the World History. A huge movement of great numbers of animals and plants started after Columbus’s discovery of America in 1492. It was a double-sided exchange between the “New World” of the Americas and the “Old World” of the Afro-Eurasia. The opening of the routes between two “Worlds” distributed a wide range of new crops and livestock. According to many environmentalists, this biological expansion brought a lot of damage to different ecosystems. However, in general, The Columbian Exchange led to the growth of the population. Ships returned to Afro-Eurasia with the sunflowers, tomatoes, and pumpkins. The most considerable organisms, which were brought

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.

One of the most interesting questions to ponder: is can a link be drawn directly to show the causation of why and when countries adopted customs or habits that are now fundamental in the present day. With secondary sources, these correlations can be shown and provide statistics as proof, based upon analysis of important primary sources. The journal article The Columbian Exchange: A History of Disease, Food and Ideas is a secondary source detailing what occurred in the years after the voyage of Columbus and how both the New World and the Old World were affected during this period of colonization. An interesting perspective was given in this paper, unlike many others that describe the same topic, in which the authors chose to focus on how the Old World was affected more so than what transpired in the areas being colonized. There was an extravagant biological exchange of both crops and disease, which provided serious lifestyle changes for both Europeans and the native people of the Americas, and there were also consequences elsewhere in the world associated with the Columbus exchange in the years after its commencement. Secondary sources are also very important to historians and this is a source that is very well written, backed up by diagrams and detailed evidence found in primary sources.

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,

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 domesticated animals that the Europeans brought carried over diseases such as small pox and measles which ultimately decimated the Native American population along with numerous animals and thus harming the ecosystem. Furthermore, after numerous crops from the New World was introduced to the Old World, there came a rising demand for those crops. This eventually led colonists to mass produce these crops in hopes of selling them for extra money. Excessive farming eventually led to deforestation for farm land along with depletion of the nutrients in American soil (Nun 174). Soil depletion then resulted in poor farming which followed starvation of the colonists and the destruction of American land. This early example shows the dangers of deforestation and poor soil that people still risk today by harming the

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

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

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

- 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,

However, human impacts on the natural environment is a complex process. Growing population and economic expansion were results of developing agriculture. Developing agriculture caused damages of natural environment and decreasing animal population. Many landscapes were developed in America since the early sixteenth century and population growth was increasing dramatically. Population growth necessitated the expansion of agriculture and the improvement of transportation.

In modern America, we often take for granted the natural world that surrounds us and the American culture which is built upon it. For many of us, we give little thought to the food sources that sustain and natural habitats that surround us because when viewed for what they are, most people assume that they have “simply existed” since the country was founded. However, the documentary ‘America Before Columbus’ provided this writer an extremely interesting record of how the America we know came to exist. In the documentary, one of the most interesting discussions centered on the fact that it was not merely the arrival of conquistadors and colonists that irrevocably changed the landscape of the Americas, but that it was also the coined term known as the “Columbian Exchange” that afforded these travelers the ability to proliferate so successfully. The basic definition of the Columbian exchange is one that defines the importation of European flora and fauna. It could also loosely represent other imports, both intended and unintended, such as tools, implements, and even disease. Armed with this definition, it takes little imagination to envision how differently the Americas might have developed had any significant amount of the native European flora, fauna, or other unintended import not been conveyed to the Americas through the Columbian Exchange. Beyond the arrival of explorers, settlers, and colonists to the New World, the breadth of what the Columbian Exchange represented to

In the world today, global warming is rapidly being noticed by most all living beings, especially in North America. Global warming is, according to dictionary.reference.com is ‘an increase in the earth's average atmospheric temperature that causes corresponding changes in climate and that may result from the greenhouse effect.’ (global-warming. 2015). Changes in the earth temperatures could be due to anything, but I think that global warming is very real, and it could affect our children and grandchildren. Over the past years, global warming has changed temperatures, usually making them higher than before, and is affecting sea levels while also shifting seasons. These things can be a problem because the world that we know now could alter so dramatically that the earth could very well not be able to be lived on anymore. Things such as that could cause a number of things including extinction of species, increase of fires, droughts, and floods, and even economic losses.