Significance Of The Columbian Exchange

The Columbian Exchange, derived from the voyages of Columbus to the Americas, was a chapter in history that connected the Old World to the New World by exchanging crops, culture, and technology. The Columbian Exchange in the Western Hemisphere resulted in extensive demographic, social, economic, and environmental changes. The arrival of Europeans to Native American land produced an intense mixture of culture and population fluctuation. Not only did this exchange affect the social aspect between the two nations, it changed the way people engaged in trade and proprietary interests, which would lead to a massive destruction and transformation of the environment.

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.

When, Columbus set foot on America he initiated a biological, ecological, and economic exchange. Exchanges of slaves, animals, technology, plants, animals, diseases transformed European and Native American ways of life. The plants that were exchanged in the Columbian Exchange changed both the culture and the economy of the Old and New Worlds. There were many new plants discovered in the Americas which included maize, chili peppers, peanuts, tomatoes, avocado, sweet potatoes, pineapple, and cacao, but the two main plants were the maize and potato. New farming equipment like the plow was also introduced to the new cultivate more land. Although some farming equipment were discovers slaves were still used to harvest sugar canes, field tobacco,

When you are sitting in a fancy restaurant in Texas, tasting a delicious steak with a nice cup of coffee, do you know that before 1492, American people don’t even know what is beef and coffee. Nowadays, people’s diet is abundant. People in every part of the world can taste the food originated in other side of the world. This is due to one of the most significant ecological events in human history called the Columbian Exchange. According to Nunn Nathan and Qian Nancy, “the Columbian Exchange refers to the exchange of diseases, ideas, food crops, and populations between the New World and the Old World following the voyage to the Americas by Christopher Columbus in 1492” (Nathan and Nancy, 2010). It was so spectacular that has left both positive and negative impacts in each side of the world.

Until the sixteenth century, the experts in that period of time believed that it was impossible to sail west across from the Atlantic to Asia. By his adventure, Christopher Columbus, an Italian navigator, proved that they were wrong. However, based on the theory that the earth was a sphere, he thought that he could reach the East Indies by sailing west. He calculated the distance from Portugal to Asia was shorter than to Congo. In fact, the real distance from Portugal to Japan was much further, over ten thousand miles. With his erroneous estimate, he planned a scheme to prove he was right. After several unsuccessful lobbying in Portugal, Spain, even in England and France, eventually, in 1492, he won financing for his journey from Spanish monarchs,

In 1492 the explorer Columbus set out on his first voyage for Spain in search of a direct water route across the Atlantic Ocean from Europe to Asia. Instead though, he found the Americas. Once in the New World Columbus ran into a native people and decided to name them Indians. This accidental finding of the Americas ignited the first contact ever between the Western and Eastern hemisphere. The result of this was The Columbian Exchange in which there was a large trade of animals, plants, technology, culture, slaves, diseases, and even new religions. This exchange effected the way Europeans, Americans, Asians, and Africans lived their daily lives. The Columbian exchange was by far one of the most paramount events in the history of world technology, agriculture, culture, and ecology. In this research paper the following will be answered:

The transfer of plants, animals, and goods between the Old and New World had both positive and negative consequences. The New World received plants such as wheat, sugar cane, rice and coffee. Much importance for the transfer of sugar cane in the Americas began. Columbus first introduced sugar cane to the New World in his second trip to Hispaniola. The Madeira’s Islands was where Europeans held most of their sugar cane production. These islands then served as a “stepping stone” in transporting sugar cane to the New World. Once sugar reached the Americas, the taste for sugar eventually spread causing rifts between countries. Sugar is a staple in modern day America. The demand and need for sugar cane increased quickly. Many lives were lost during wars that were fought over the production and expansion of sugar cane. The Old World received important foods such as corn, potatoes, and beans. The increase of food supply helped populations to grow. The Old World also received goods such as gold and silver. These exchanges between the Old and New World changed each other’s economies, food supply, and technologies. Livestock was traded and some food supply was eaten completely. These animals sometimes carried disease and eventually transferred them to humans. The exchange of cattle and livestock contributed to the introduction of disease that spread through civilizations of people. This lead to extreme numbers of fatality in the New World.

An array of different plants and crops were some of the most abundant items to be exchanged during this time. There were things that grew in the New World that were not available in the Old World and vice versa. For example, wheat barley, rice and turnips were very prevalent in the Old World but hadn’t yet made their way to the Americas. The Columbian exchange made this happen while providing the Old World with things the New World Could offer such as maize, white potatoes, sweet potatoes and manioc. Some of the Europeans settlers brought apple seeds with them as well which grew in the northern part of what we call present day, North America.

Christopher Columbus changed the Old World in 1492 by accidently sailing to a new land, which was thought to be India but was actually the Americas. He soon found that the goods in the New World were not found in the Old World, and that the New World didn’t have certain goods like the Old World did. People started to exchange goods from the New World to the Old World, and the Old World to the New World. This process was called the Columbian Exchange, and it continued to happen for centuries. When the term, “When Worlds Collide”, is used, it means the exchanging of goods through the Columbian Exchange between the peoples of the New and Old Worlds.

You gave good insight on your discussion post. The Columbian Exchange was a bitter and sweet event that took place and without it the world would not be what it is today. The exchange brought much valuable products, crops, livestock, and etc., which was beneficial to the New World. Furthermore, tragedy struck very hard when the Spanish brought the smallpox disease to the naives. I would say the Indians really suffered from the diseases by dying and the remaining Indians suffered when the Europeans forced them to give up their land. The Columbian Exchange definitely made a difference in today’s society, but was also able to manipulate world good and evil.

The significance of the Colombian Exchange was the Europeans bringing over their crops, animals, and diseases. First, crops are a direct way for population growth in humans. The Columbian Exchange brought new crops to the New World such as maize, white potatoes, sweet potatoes and manioc. These are all crops that are essential to our diets today. Our ability to grow and harvest plants is amazing in itself but to travel to uncharted land and thrive is truly greatness. Animals were affected by the Colombian Exchange too. Cattle and horses were brought ashore in the early 1600s and found the perfect climate in the New World. On a negative note, the Europeans brought over their diseases which almost eliminated a whole population of people. Small Pox was the culprit for most of the Native American deaths. The Native Americans did not have the immune system built for these kind of diseases and most of them died. The Columbian Exchange changed the entire demographic of the world.

The Columbian exchange is a monumental moment in history in which there was a vast amount of trade between the Americas, Africa, and the European continent. It brought about a diversity within the staple of crops, livestock and disease. Although the objective was meant to be beneficial it was not all that way. This exchange brought a rise within the economy along with the disease.

Trade has long since been known to be the ideal method of dispersion of culture, ideas, plants, animals, disease, religion, and anything else that may be tied to a specific region. Even before Columbus, Mariners on the Indian Ocean brought crops, pests, weeds, and disease back and forth, and caravan traffic on land exchanged interregional seeds, spores, and germs (Crosby 13-14). Columbus’ arrival in the New World in 1492 and the following voyages that brought more Europeans to this land were no different. This event, coined “the Columbian Exchange” by Alfred W. Crosby Jr., refers to the European influence on the Americas, which Crosby details in his book The Columbian Exchange. The most important changes that transpired in the New and Old Worlds

Not only did Europe receive animals, they also received avocado, beans, cashews, chicle, chili pepper, cocoa, cotton, huckleberry, maize, manioc, papaya, peanut, pecan, pineapple, potato, rubber, squash, sunflower, strawberry, sweet potato, tobacco, tomato, and vanilla (Columbian Exchange at a Glance). There were many benefits to this trade, there were also different diseases traded that weren’t meant to be traded, but were transferred by the ignorance of the people who were already immune to the disease.

The most important crop which is a essential part of European food are tomatoes these came from the new world and were also sought after from Spain. Sugar cane was another crop that was brought to Europe but weather prohibited it from staying there for to long. As a result of the weather it was transferred to the new world were it abound. Culture is another wonderful thing that was effected and spread in the Colombian exchange.