Columbian Exchange Essay

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Columbian Exchange Essay
Starting in the 13th century, many countries were running out of room for their growing populations, and out of patience for one another. Many Europeans were getting almost cramped in their countries, and with no room to expand to the East, they decided to try and expand elsewhere. The spirit of adventure fueled their travels, with many explorers wanting to learn more about the world and what the endless possibilities could be if they were to find what was unknown to them at the time. The Columbian Exchange was one exploration that forever changed civilizations in the New World of the Americas and in the Old World in Europe. While some aspects of the exchange may have hurt one side or the other, overall the Columbian Exchange had an overall positive effect for the New World and Europe because it helped improve exploration for the future, shared new crops around the world, and introduced people of the new world to more helpful technologies and animals.
Where some may say that the Columbian Exchange just exchanged objects and ideas, it enabled much more as well. Before the Europeans had actually touched down in the New World, they had obtained a large amount of new experiences from their journeys at sea. “Exploration brought a better understanding of the world, which led to improved navigation and easier future voyages.” (Source One) Before any real exploration, Europeans had not known about Natives in the Americas or that the Americas even existed at all. While they thought they knew everything about the world, it was truly limited compared to its true size. Through this exploration, European explorers were able to obtain more information than they thought there was to know about what else what out in the...

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...at disease killed in the tribes, but in reality the diseases helped control the Native American population and enabled better and freer lives for the Natives that lived on. All animals brought across the Atlantic greatly helped the economies and daily lives of the people of the New World.
There were of course a few negative effects of the Columbian Exchange, but there are always negative effects of everything. But the Columbian Exchange greatly improved exploration for Europeans, making it easier for them to expand and explore in the future. It also brought new crops to both the Americas and Europe, helping both economies and populations. And finally, the trade of livestock enhanced the lives of Native Americans and made them much easier. Overall, the Columbian Exchange greatly helped both the New World and the Old World economically, politically, and socially.

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