Negative Consequences Of The Columbian Exchange

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UNIVERSITY OF REGINA Faculty of Kinesiology and Health Studies Health Studies 200 Winter 2016 – Midterm INSTRUCTIONS • The exam is open book and take home • The exam must be typed and submitted electronically in a sensible font at a sensible size (i.e. no fonts like ‘papyrus’ or ‘jokerman’ and a font size between 10 and 12 pts) • Citations are only required to substantiate points brought in outside the source material. Any references to the class text or assigned readings are not necessary. Your references can be footnotes, endnotes, or in-text as per your preference • Quotes should be used sparingly; the work should be almost entirely in your own words. Standard academic integrity principles apply • Students are free to answer either in point …show more content…

Alfred Crosby, the historian who coined the term the Columbian Exchange, famously considers it a bad thing for humanity saying “we... are the less for [the Columbian Exchange], and the impoverishment shall increase”. Consider all of the positive and negative outcomes of the Columbian exchange and answer the following question: is Crosby right? Is humanity ultimately better off or worse off? The Columbian Exchange created a significant contribution to the idea of globalization. The exchange opened the doors for economic growth by distributing and trading goods, animals, and plant life (crops) that were transported from one continent to another. The Europeans introduced farming, architecture, written alphabet, firearms and weaponry for hunting, food crop, religion, spices, etc. Along with the increase in availability of previously mentioned resources were devastating …show more content…

These deadly diseases were identified as, but not limited to: small pox, measles, yellow fever, influenza, syphilis, and malaria. Since many, if not all of these diseases were novel in these populations, they spread devastatingly fast, with modes of transmission consisting of airborne aerosols/droplets (ie. coughing, sneezing, etc.) or direct contact. Further, it single-handedly depopulated nations because unlike the Europeans, Native Americans had no prior immune response to the illnesses, and were extremely vulnerable to the pathogens. The mortality rate was approximated to 80-95% of the Native American population. In my opinion, ignorance was the main culprit during the exchange. Perhaps at that time, Columbus did not know the implications of introducing livestock where they don’t belong, nor the effects planting crops where they will not thrive. Moreover, due to lack of medical advancement during that era, the Europeans would have not anticipated the fact that Native Americans may not be immune to the diseases they carry or were infected with, which resulted in

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