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The Columbian Exchange
effect of colonialism
The Columbian Exchange
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“In fourteen ninety-two, Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue. He had three ships and left from Spain” (Columbus Poem). On the cargo of those ships were domestic flora, fauna, diseases, ideas, technology, and people that were distributed throughout the new world and the old world during the first landing of Columbus. This widespread of transfer of ideas and goods is known as the Columbian exchange, a long term benefit of the Atlantic network where European reaped all the benefits (lecture).
The idea of European reaping all the benefits is known as the ecological imperialism of the Columbian exchange as well as Europe’s final move in this metaphorical chess tournament that helped Europe emerge as the new “queen” of global trade. In this
The African elites who facilitated the trafficking of human cargo flourished from the goods they received from Europe such as rum (705). But the increase demand for African slaves for the Caribbean and Brazil caused for the system of how slaves were captured to become blurry. No longer were war enemies the only source of slavery, but also free people, even children (Equiano). This high transport of Africans men hurt the economy and many leaders such as those in Asante stop trading because they had no more laborers (707). One of the only benefit of the exchange was that the crops from the new world (corn/potatoes) helped Africa’s population counter their loss in
Their religion of human sacrificing and sun gods were pagent in the eyes of Europeans and they were forced to convert to Spain and Portugal religion, Roman Christianity. From the diaspora in the Caribbean and Brazil the africans were able to retain some elements of its culture because most of the slaves came from the same general area, Congo (lecture).
For both group of people syncretism became the alternative to assimilating to the dominant culture religion. New religion such as Candomble and the diverse portrayal of Mary (lady Guadalupe) sprung up and caused problems (lecture). The ethnic mixing occurring with the african dispora, the natives, and the europeans also caused race issues and political instability in the Americas which are still being settled
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 trading of products and goods between the old world and new world led to economical and population issues. Although they benefited from trading at first, it introduced several problems (Doc 1, Doc 5, & Doc 7). The Americas shipped sugar, rice, wheat, coffee, bananas, and grapes to the Europeans and in return, the Europeans shipped enumerated articles back such as tobacco, beans, maize, tomato, cacao, cotton, and potato (Doc 5). Through the trading of products and goods, diseases were introduced by the Europeans (Doc 5). Not too long after diseases began to spread, the economy shifts to a large scale of agricultural production resulting in slavery, using black slaves to harvest cash crops such as sugar cane (Doc 1). Two specific products,
The author’s thesis is that before the arrival of Columbus and European culture in 1492, advanced society and culture already existed in the Americas that was not of the barbaric nature. This is clear when upon observing the author’s reasons for writing the book: “Balee’s talk was about ‘anthropogenic’ forests-forests created by Indians centuries or millennia in the past-a concept I’ve never heard of before. He also mentioned something that Denevan had discussed: many researchers now believe their predecessors underestimated the number of people in the Americas when Columbus arrived...Gee, someone ought to put all this stuff together, I thought. It would make a fascinating book”(x). Charles C. Mann is stating that upon learning the impressive
The Columbian Exchange is a global exchange of goods and ideas between the Old World (Europe, Asia and Africa) and the New World (America). When Columbus first discovered America, Spain wanted to set up colonies. Columbus found some people that he named “Indians.” They colonies started to trade with each other, and by doing do, they started the Columbian Exchange. Many countries were involved in this trade, including China, Africa and Italy. This exchange of new ideas, traditions, food, religion and diet changed cultures everywhere.
Christopher Columbus is profoundly known to be the key asset to advance European culture across seas. The Columbian Exchange, colonization, and the growth of slave usage throughout the usage of the Triangular Trade, all conveyed foreign practices to the American Continent while also interrupting, but at the same time joining with the lifestyles of the inhabitants of these lands. A mixture of processes and voyagers transformed America into a “new world”, catching the world by surprise. America would not have developed to the period in existence today, if it was not for this growing period of the “old” and “new” worlds. A global world is in continuation through today as nations continue to share cultural
On August 3, 1492, Christopher Columbus departed from Palos, Spain to begin his journey across the Atlantic Ocean. This was the first of many voyages that allowed him to explore a New World where he was able to discover plants, animals, cultures and resources that Europeans had never seen before. The sharing of these resources and combination of the Old and New World has come to be known as the Columbian Exchange. During these explorations, the Europeans brought diseases such as malaria, yellow fever, typhoid and bubonic plague to the New World, wiping out entire Indian populations. There were also many other populations wiped out due to complications that came from this exchange. Were these explorations and the wiping out of entire populations worth the benefits gained by the exchange?
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.
Christopher Columbus’ discovery of the New World in 1492 sparked an era known as the Columbian Exchange, in which the exchange of plants, animals, technology, ideas, and diseases occurred. It also marked the migration of many European settlers into the Americas, where they implemented their Eurocentric ideology on the First Nations who were residing there. A large amount of Latin Native Americans were taken as slaves back to Europe, or forced to commit rigorous labour and chores on sugar and coffee plantations in the Caribbean or South America. European monarchs utilized such resources through a mercantilist policy, giving Europe an economic boost. Based on the profits they were making through colonialism, they decided to set out and go imperialize more territory around the world. These events reinforce the idea that Europe could only flourish through the marginalization of Aboriginal
Many years ago, continental drift took the Old and New Worlds apart, dividing North and South America from Eurasia and Africa. That disconnection lasted so long that it fostered divergent evolution; for example, the growth of rattlesnakes on one side of the Atlantic. Subsequently 1492, human travelers in part altered this propensity. Their reestablishment of relationships through the merge of Old and New World plants, creatures, and diseases, frequently known as the Columbian Exchange. It’s one of the most spectacular and significant ecological events of the past millennium.
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
Nunn, Nathan, and Nancy Qian. "The Columbian Exchange: A History of Disease, Food, and Ideas." Journal of Economic Perspectives. Yale University, 2010. Web. 12 Oct. 2013. .
Columbian Exchange, which also call the Grand Exchange, is an exchange of animals, crops, pollution (European and African), culture, infectious diseases and ideology between the eastern and western hemisphere in 15th and 16th centuries. Alfred W. Crosby first proposed this concept in his book “ The Columbian Exchange”, which published in 1972.
Concluding, the significance of the Columbian exchange greatly impacted what we know of life today. The major impacts that have shaped what we know of the world today happened during the Colombian exchange. The major impacts of the Colombian exchange was Christianity that led to the rise of the Catholic Church, new food crops and domesticated animals that improved the Europeans and American living, new military technology such as weapons and horses, slavery of the natives and Africans and diseases that drastically harmed the different ethnic groups. Colombian Exchange between the old world and the new world still holds a drastic impact on the world today. If we didn’t have these influences then the world would be completely changed. Trading still continues today and has made an impact all over the world.
The concept of the slave trade came about in the 1430’s, when the Portuguese came to Africa in search of gold (not slaves). They traded copper ware, cloth, tools, wine, horses and later, guns and ammunition with African kingdoms in exchange for ivory, pepper, and gold (which were prized in Europe). There was not a very large demand for slaves in Europe, but the Portuguese realized that they could get a good profit from transporting slaves along the African coast from trading post to trading post. The slaves were bought greedily by Muslim merchants, who used them on the trans-Sahara trade routes and sold them in the Islamic Empire. The Portuguese continued to collect slaves from the whole west side of Africa, all the way down to the Cape of Good Hope (South Africa), and up the east side, traveling as far as Somalia. Along the way, Portugal established trade relations with many African kingdoms, which later helped begin the Atlantic Slave Trade. Because of Portugal’s good for...