Change Over Time

593 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: columbian exchange and its importance

The Columbian Exchange refers to a historical period of the exchange of animals, plants, diseases, and technology between the Old World (Europe, Asia, and Africa) and the New World (the Americas). It is considered one of the most significant events in the history of culture because it affected almost every society by bringing deadly diseases and expanding the variety of new crops and livestock. Today, rats can be found everywhere in the world, but they originated from Asia (commonly found in great numbers in China, Japan, and India) and eventually got to Europe through established trade routes, passing through Turkestan and a region around the Black Sea. Europeans weren't intially fond of the presence of rats because they helped spread the Bubonic Plague, which killed one-third of the Western European population. Although fleas were the primary reason for the spread of the Bubonic Plague, they fed on the blood of infected rats. Other than that, rats didn't seem to do much damage to Europe. While some people look as rats as being affectionate, intelligent rodents, others may look at them as being filthy and unappealing. During the time frame of 1450-1750, rats served as pests by spreading and eating all of the colonists' food, competing with small native animals of the New World, and today, the people of the U.S. have developed methods to avoid the presence of rats by using methods such as poison or traps. However, although rats have had a negative impact on the New World by bringing diseases, diseases have always been prevalent even before the widespread of rats throughout the world.

Rats were transported from the Old World to the New World during the Columbian Exchange across the Atlantic waters. Although the Europea...

... middle of paper ...

...ith unpleasant things, such as diseases and filth. The black and brown rat are the most common variations of rats found today, but they originated, through trade, to almost all parts of the world today.

Works Cited

http://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-by-era/american-indians/essays/columbian-exchange http://public.gettysburg.edu/~tshannon/hist106web/site19/ http://www.crf-usa.org/bill-of-rights-in-action/bria-25-1-the-columbian-exchange http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/3868189?uid=3739832&uid=2&uid=4&uid=3739256&sid=21102935431757 http://books.google.com/books?id=7yClMF7IQt8C&pg=PA97&lpg=PA97&dq=how+were+rats+involved+in+the+columbian+exchange&source=bl&ots=WYP-eGyHWv&sig=bPGAqL7e-F8cOrV8zX81G2yJ1U0&hl=en&sa=X&ei=HFuIUpbmNanPsASl74DgAQ&ved=0CDQQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=how%20were%20rats%20involved%20in%20the%20columbian%20exchange&f=false

Show More
Related

  • How Did The Columbian Exchange Affect Native Americans

    502 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Cahoki A Pre-Columbian American City By Timothy R. Pauketat

    1153 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the New World, domestic animals were not common and therefore most meat was hunted and scavenged for, whereas in the Old World domestic animals such as cows, horses, pigs, etc. were very commonplace in villages of the same stature as those in the Americas thus living styles were different with different habits. In addition, the epidemiological imbalance came from the amount of diseases deriving from the old world and its domestic animals compared to the diseases found in the Americas. Overall, the old world, Europe, had many more diseases which transmitted easily. Also, Mann calls the disease imbalance the most important fact in world history because when these diseases were transmitted to the Americas, it dictated the first 150 years of Native American life as so many were

    Read More

  • 14th Century Outbreak of the Black Plague

    1151 Words  | 3 Pages

    In 1347, Europe began to perceive what the Plague had in store. Terrible outcomes arose when the citizens caught the Plague from fleas. The transfer of fleas to humans caused the outbreak of the Black Death. Infections that rodents caught were passed on to fleas, which would find a host to bite, spreading the terrible disease (“Plague the Black Death” n.pag.). When Genoese ships arrived back to Europe from China, with dead sailors and...

    Read More

  • Cause And Impact Of The Columbian Exchange

    1284 Words  | 3 Pages

    “As European adventurers traversed the world in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries they initiated the “Columbian Exchange” of plants, animals, and diseases.”(P. 26). The Columbian Exchange refers to a period of exchanges between the New and Old Worlds. The exchange of plants, animals, diseases and more modernized technology, beginning after Columbus landing in the Americas in 1492. It lasted through the fifteenth and sixteenth century. Domesticated animals such as cattle, horses, sheep and pigs were introduced to the Americas. The Americas introduced to Europe many new crops such as potatoes, beans, squash, and maize. In time Native people learned to raise European livestock and European and Africans planted American crops. This was the positive effect of the encounter and it was largely responsible for the doubling of the world’s population in 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. Typhus, diphtheria, malaria, influenza, cholera, and smallpox killed many of the native people. One example was

    Read More

  • Cause And Effects Of The Columbian Exchange

    1229 Words  | 3 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • The Spread of Disease In the New World

    1820 Words  | 4 Pages

    The Spread of Disease In the New World The extraordinary good health of the natives prior to the coming of the Europeans would become a key ingredient in their disastrous undoing. The greatest cause of disease in America was epidemic diseases imported from Europe. Epidemic diseases killed with added virulence in the " virgin soil" populations of the Americas. The great plague that arose in the Old World never emerged on their own in the western hemisphere and did not spread across oceans until Columbus' discovery.

    Read More

  • The Diversity of American Colonial Societies

    843 Words  | 2 Pages

    The development of European colonies in the Americas drastically and permanently changed not only the environment of the New World, but also those of multiple countries around the globe. Many species of plants, animals, diseases, and races of people were dispersed throughout North and South America. Important Native American crops such as the potato and corn were brought back to the Old World of Europe and significantly changed diets and lifestyles there. This widespread exchange of plants and animals is referred to as the Columbian Exchange, after Christopher Columbus, whose historical voyage arguably started the movement.

    Read More

  • Was Disease a key factor

    985 Words  | 2 Pages

    While the Europeans were traveling to the New World, they often brought domesticated animals with them for sources of food and livestock. When animals and humans are living in close quarters together, it is very likely for exposure to germs to occur. New diseases were brought over by foreigners looking for fame and gold that killed off many of the natives in the new lands. The natives did not stand a chance against these new threats because of a lack of knowledge and supplies to cure themselves. Once the Europeans established diseases as they made land in the New World, their journey had only become easier as their competition were being wiped out from the rapid spread.

    Read More

  • Smallpox

    837 Words  | 2 Pages

    Although the Columbian Exchange allowed for the beneficial exchange of cultures, ideas, foods, and animals around the world during the 1450-1750 time period, it also had a dark side. One detrimental result of the Columbian Exchange would be the spread of smallpox from Europe to the New World. The great explorations and subsequent migrations of Europeans to the Americas in the 15th-18th centuries opened up those entire continents to the fatal impact of the infectious diseases of Europe. European conquests owed a good deal of their success to the effects of disease on the indigenous peoples, especially smallpox in the Americas. Before the Spanish conquest of the New World, there were no sickness or health related issues that Natives were forced to face.

    Read More

  • Bubonic Plague Dbq Essay

    1587 Words  | 4 Pages

    Sweeping through Western Europe during the fourteenth century, the Bubonic Plague wiped out nearly one third of the population and did not regard: status, age or even gender. All of this occurred as a result of a single fleabite. Bubonic Plague also known as Black Death started in Asia and traveled to Europe by ships. The Plague was thought to be spread by the dominating empire during this time, the Mongolian Empire, along the Silk Road. The Bubonic Plague was an infectious disease spread by fleas living on rats, which can be easily, be attached to traveler to be later spread to a city or region. Many factors like depopulation, decreasing trade, and huge shifts in migrations occurred during the Bubonic Plague. During Bubonic Plague there were also many different beliefs and concerns, which include fear, exploitation, religious and supernatural superstition, and a change of response from the fifteenth to eighteen century.

    Read More

  • Medicine in the Middle Ages

    511 Words  | 2 Pages

    During the 14th century most of Europe was struck by a devastating disease called the Black Death, or bubonic plague. This disease was carried by flees which lived on rats. When the rats died, the flees jumped onto humans and spread the disease. Even though the Black Death was controlled in Europe by 1351, it came back regularly over the next 150 years.

    Read More

  • Hurricane Katrina

    1533 Words  | 4 Pages

    "Rodents." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 29 July 2010. Web. 8 Mar. 2014.

    Read More

  • European Exploration: The New World

    942 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Columbian exchange was the exchange of slaves, animals, crops, and resources. The Columbian exchange was not as serene and hygienic as explorers and Native American would have liked it. The first reason the Columbian exchange is a significant impact to the European exploration is crops. The east part of the word was growing wheat, barely, rice, and fruit (1). The west of the world was growing potatoes, tomatoes, and fruits (1). The two worlds would trade crops which each other giving the other something they didn’t have. This was not the only things they trade, livestock was also traded. The west part of the world didn’t have a lot of animals and the animals they had weren’t agriculture animals. The animals that Europe sent were horses, cattle, pigs, and sheep (1).The lifestyle of the Native American change when the horses were introduced into their life. The European didn’t send crops and livestock to the new world, they also sent disease. The Europeans sent disease that were nasty, harmful, and very contagious. The European sent disease such as smallpox, Malaria, Diphtheria, and others (1). These diseases were sent to the new world by the ships, people, and especially the pigs. These diseases killed lots of Native American in the New World and was devastating. The Columbian exchange was a great lift for the Europeans because of trade, but not so good for the Native Americans.

    Read More

  • Ways To Kill A Rat Essay

    899 Words  | 2 Pages

    Rats are undesirable creatures that have been the symbol of death, pestilence, and disease. Rats can cause billions of dollars in damage and can start fires, spread serious diseases, and multiply rapidly to infest homes, according to the article Top Ten Fascinating Facts About Rats. Additionally, the inundation of rats in a home can cause panic and mass hysteria, with residents calling pest control companies and law enforcement as soon as they see a rat, as expressed by John Davidson in Floods See Rat Population Explosion . The trouble that the rats cause has been an issue for a very long time. The flood of rats that invade a home is believed to be caused by an increases in food sources near populated areas, and decreases in predators and dry

    Read More

  • 100 years of change

    543 Words  | 2 Pages

    This century has been one of many changes and incredible inventions. If a person was to think about it, this century has taken us from horseback to fuel-injected horsepower, from gaslights to sodium-vapor streetlights, from crystal radios to digital television, from compasses to GPS navigation systems, from wood burning stoves to microwave ovens, from Victrolas to DVD players and of course from hot air balloons to jet propulsion aircraft.

    Read More

More about Change Over Time

Open Document