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The columbian voyages, the columbian exchange
Effects on Native Americans by white settlers
Effects on Native Americans by white settlers
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In his article “The Columbian Voyages, the Columbian Exchange, and Their Historians”, Alfred W. Crosby seems to think that much of the Columbian voyages and what came out of them was detrimental to many cultures, most of all the Native Americans. Crosby brings up many institutions and ideologies to re-enforce his opinion, such as the slave trade and the conquest of many Native American cultures. One of the major effects of the Columbian exchange was the decimation of the Native American population. Crosby attributes this to many factors, the conquest of the Europeans, the cultural vacuum created by European attempts to Christianize the Amerindians, and the introduction of new and lethal micro-organisms into the ecosystem. More commonly known as viruses, these organisms wreaked havoc with a population that had never been exposed to them previously. Crosby chalks this up as another way the Europeans decimated the population of the Amerindians, but neglected to mention that although the introduction of new viruses and diseases into a culture is devastating, it is an integral part of nature and cannot be avoided.
There are many reasons that disease is a necessary part of an ecosystem. First, and most obvious, is the fact that it is one of nature’s natural checks. This means that nature, in an attempt to control population and insure a balanced ecosystem, constantly checks itself. Disease is an integral part of these checks, as it cuts down on the population of human beings-...
In Alfred J. Crosby’s book, The Columbian Exchange, the author examines the impact of the New World on the Old World, but also the impact the Old World had on the New World. One key distinction Crosby notes is how the discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus challenged the intellectual systems of Christianity and Aristotelianism. Most notably, the discovery of a world that was, in fact, “new” was so contradictory to scholarly work of the past, such as Aristotle or found in the Bible, that assumptions were made on where to fit the New World into a Christian and Aristotelian world. For example, previous findings under Aristotle, which were still utilized into the 15th Century, had “quite logically supposed the equatorial zone of
Encomiendas: An encomienda was a grant of Native American labor given to prominent European men in the Americas by the Spanish king. This grant allowed European men to extract tribute from natives in the form of labor and goods. The value of the grants was dramatically increased with the discovery of gold and silver in the Americas. The significance of this term is that although this system was eventually repartitioned, it initiated the tradition of prominent men controlling vast resources and monopolizing native labor.
The Columbian Exchange impacted Native Americans, Europeans, and Africans in many ways. Some of the major components of this exchange were plants, animals, and diseases. The Native Americans was impacted because they did not have immune systems capable of handling diseases such as; small pox, the plague, and yellow fever. This resulted in the population of Native Americans being cut by at least 90% over the course of a couple hundred years and making it easier for foreigners to come in and take over. The animal that helped the Native Americans was the horse. It helped them expand and explore places other than agricultural plains like mountains. The Europeans brought back tobacco. Tabaco then lead to many deaths because of its health issues involved with the use. They also got introduced to tomatoes which people thought for a long time was not edible. Africans acquired potatoes and maize, which became a main staple in Africa.
The article, “Native Reactions to the invasion of America”, is written by a well-known historian, James Axtell to inform the readers about the tragedy that took place in the Native American history. All through the article, Axtell summarizes the life of the Native Americans after Columbus acquainted America to the world. Axtell launches his essay by pointing out how Christopher Columbus’s image changed in the eyes of the public over the past century. In 1892, Columbus’s work and admirations overshadowed the tears and sorrows of the Native Americans. However, in 1992, Columbus’s undeserved limelight shifted to the Native Americans when the society rediscovered the history’s unheard voices and became much more evident about the horrific tragedy of the Natives Indians.
Columbus appears to be a dreamer. His goals were selfish and his true knowledge weak. He was deceitful and egotistical and knew how to manipulate others. Throughout his writings he refers to the things that ‘he’ accomplished, as if he had done them alone. He lied almost daily to the sailors according to his journal when he stated “less than the true number” (Halsall) of leagues travelled each day was reported to them. He spoke of an abundance of gold he found in the islands when he wrote “the majority [of rivers]…contain gold” (Belasco and Johnson 82). According to his journal entries, he only observes the existence of gold two times and both times it is seen hanging from a man’s nose. For example, on October 17 he encounters a man that had “hanging at his nose a piece of gold half as big as a castellailo” (Halsall), about a half pound in weight. Although he was told about gold and searched for gold, he never procured any. Additionally, he had a very high opinion of himself and was not hesitant in letting others know this. In his initial Journal writing he announces himself to be “Don” (Halsall), that’s like saying ‘I’m the head man.’ Furthermore, he let the King and Queen know that his proclaimed distinction was to be passed to his oldest son, including governorship of islands and lands he finds on his journey. He appears to think that what once belonged to native islanders, will belonged to him.
This was the positive effect of the encounter and it was largely responsible for the doubling of the world’s population over the next three hundred years. There were also many negative effects to the “Columbian Exchange”. A major consequence was the spread of disease in the New World. Diseases carried by Europeans and Africans devastated the population of the Americas. As Europeans traveled through the Americas, epidemics came with them.
The European influences to the Native Americans were Europeans carried the new diseases to the Indians. “Europeans were used to these diseases, but Indian people had no resistance to them. Sometimes the illnesses spread through direct contact with colonists. Other times, they were transmitted as Indians traded with one another. The result of this contact with European germs was horrible. Sometimes whole villages perished in a short time” (Kincheloe). Slave trade was another influence to American Indians. Europeans soon realized that they could provide commercial goods such as tools and weapons to some American Indian tribes that would bring them other Indians captured in tribal wars, and these captured Indians were bought and sold as slaves. Therefore, “slavery led to warfare among tribes and too much hardship. Many tribes had to move to escape the slave trade, which destroyed some tribes completely. In time, the practice of enslaving Native peoples ended. However, it had greatly affected American Indians of the South and the Southwest” (Kinchloe). Lastly, Europeans change Native America and African’ roots. Native Americans
The Columbian exchange was the widespread transfer of various products such as animals, plants, and culture between the Americas and Europe. Though most likely unintentional, the byproduct that had the largest impact from this exchange between the old and new world was communicable diseases. Europeans and other immigrants brought a host of diseases with them to America, which killed as much as ninety percent of the native population. Epidemics ravaged both native and nonnative populations of the new world destroying civilizations. The source of these epidemics were due to low resistance, poor sanitation, and inadequate medical knowledge- “more die of the practitioner than of the natural course of the disease (Duffy).” These diseases of the new world posed a serious
Columbian Exchange or the big exchange was a great exchange on a wide range of animals (Horses, Chickens, sheep, swine, Turkey), plants (Wheat, barley, corn, beans, tomatoes), people and culture, infectious diseases, and ideas, technology (Wheeled vehicles, iron tools, metallurgy) all these things happened between Native Americans and from Europe after the voyage of Christopher Columbus in 1492. Resulting in communication between the two cultures to initiate a number of crops that have led to the increase in population in both hemispheres, where the explorers returned to Europe loaded with corn, tomatoes, potatoes, which has become one of the main crops in Eurasia with the solutions of the eighteenth century. At the same time, the Europeans crops, cassava and peanuts to Southeast Asia with a tropical climate.
Microbes from Europe introduced new diseases and produced devastating epidemics that swept through the native populations (Nichols 2008). The result from the diseases brought over, such as smallpox, was a demographic catastrophe that killed millions of people, weakened existing societies, and greatly aided the Spanish and Portuguese in their rapid and devastating conquest of the existing American empires (Brinkley 2014). Interaction took place with the arrival of whites and foreigners. The first and perhaps most profound result of this exchange was the imp...
The Colombian Exchange was an extensive exchange between the eastern and western hemispheres as knows as the Old World and New World. The Colombian exchange greatly affects almost every society. It prompted both voluntary and forced migration of millions of human beings. There are both positive and negative effects that you can see from the Colombian Exchange. The Colombian Exchange explorers created contact between Europe and the Americas. The interaction with Native Americans began the exchange of animals, plants, disease, and weapons. The most significant effects that the Colombian Exchange had on the Old World and New World were its changes in agriculture, disease, culture, and its effects on ecology.
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.
The Effects of Colonization on the Native Americans Native Americans had inherited the land now called America and eventually their lives were destroyed due to European colonization. When the Europeans arrived and settled, they changed the Native American way of life for the worse. These changes were caused by a number of factors including disease, loss of land, attempts to export religion, and laws, which violated Native American culture. Native Americans never came in contact with diseases that developed in the Old World because they were separated from Asia, Africa, and Europe when ocean levels rose following the end of the last Ice Age. Diseases like smallpox, measles, pneumonia, influenza, and malaria were unknown to the Native Americans until the Europeans brought these diseases over time to them.
The Columbian exchange was the exchange of goods and products that occurred when the Europeans came to America. Some of the items exchanged included potatoes and tomatoes, which originated in America, and wheat and rice, which originated in Europe. Because of this exchange, certain dishes are possible to be made. For example, tomatoes are a popular ingredient in Italian dishes, but they originated in America. Because of the Columbian exchange, Italians were able to adapt tomatoes to be included in their dishes. Similarly, there are many dishes which also cannot be possible without the exchange. This will go in-depth into a few dishes and see if they could be made without the Columbian exchange.
In Thomas King’s novel, The Inconvenient Indian, the story of North America’s history is discussed from his original viewpoint and perspective. In his first chapter, “Forgetting Columbus,” he voices his opinion about how he feel towards the way white people have told America’s history and portraying it as an adventurous tale of triumph, strength and freedom. King hunts down the evidence needed to reveal more facts on the controversial relationship between the whites and natives and how it has affected the culture of Americans. Mainly untangling the confusion between the idea of Native Americans being savages and whites constantly reigning in glory. He exposes the truth about how Native Americans were treated and how their actual stories were