Meher Akbar: How the Columbian Exchange Transformed the Americas Imagine Indian food without spices, Italian food without tomatoes, or America without coffee. It’s unimaginable, right? These ingredients are so crucial and distinctive to these different cultures, yet they were never originally native to them. How and why did they get there? Christopher Columbus’s accidental visit to the Americas is the answer. His visit connected two distinctly different regions, Afro-Eurasia and the Americas, and sparked the initiation of the Columbian Exchange. This new system exchanged many goods, diseases, and resources that drastically altered the culture, environment, and demographics of these two regions. Some of these effects turned out to be positive for the Americas, such as the introduction of new …show more content…
wonderful to behold” (Document 2). The juxtaposition between the state of Tenochtitlan in Document 3 versus Document 2 highlights both the transformative and destructive nature of the Columbian Exchange toward indigenous populations. The latter exhibits how Tenochtitlan was once a highly advanced and thriving capital, but the former displays how one conquest that emerged as an effect of the Columbian Exchange had demolished and stripped the whole city of its livelihood. These conquests were able to destroy whole civilizations and cities, proving how the Columbian Exchange had profound and far-reaching effects. Both of these examples illustrate the horrific effects of the Columbian Exchange on indigenous communities, majorly transforming their once-thriving and functioning empires into dystopian and collapsing environments. Overall, the Columbian Exchange significantly transformed the Americas from 1500 to 1750 CE, leaving a lasting impact on the cultural, environmental, and demographic landscapes of the