Columbian Exchange DBQ As we all know from the memorable song, in 1492 Columbus sailed to find the New World, commonly known as the Americas. Many idolize Columbus for his accomplishment in colonizing the Americas and starting the Columbian Exchange. The Columbian Exchange is the sharing of plants, animals, diseases, human populations, technology, and ideas between the Western and Eastern Hemispheres as a direct result of Columbus’ arrival to the Americas. However, we often oversee the downfalls of the Columbian Exchange. Some consequences of the exchange are the spread of disease to the Native people and settlers, the destruction of the Native population, and the disappearance of the Natives custom’s, beliefs, and way of life. Columbus’s Disagreement between the Europeans and the Natives and the enslavement of Native people helped to wipe out the population. Document 5 illustrates the fighting that occurred between the Natives and European. Most times the cause of this fighting was that Europeans were taking over land that was not rightfully theirs. The Natives often lost these battles because their weapons and tactics were not as advanced as the Europeans. Therefore, the large amount of deaths in battles made a change in the Native’s population. To add, when the Europeans first arrived to the Americas they established a new economic system called the encomienda system. The encomienda system was a system of forced labor which Native Americans worked on Spanish-owned estates. Document 4 explains how the system was to work, “the Indians should work on the Christians’ building, mind the gold, till the fields, and produce food for the Christian’s.” This system benefited the Europeans immensely. On the other hand, many Native’s working were treated very poorly and faced brutal punishment and labor. The enslavement of Native people was another cause of the great decrease in population. The disappearance of Native people lead to the disappearance of their customs, beliefs, and way of The Europeans came to the Americas with an imperialistic attitude. They wanted to take over the land and they thought their goods and beliefs were better than those of the Natives. Document 7 shows that the Mother Country sent over many goods of their own for trade from the colonies. The goods from the Mother Country overpowered and took the place of the Native’s goods. Document 3 provides an example of how important the crops and other goods from the Americas were to the Europeans. By taking away many of the Native’s goods and replacing them with their own, the European’s changed life over in the America’s. Also, the Native’s had already been in the Americas for many years before the arrival of the Europeans. They had established a religion, language, and way of life. The Europeans thought they were better than the Native’s. Their main goal was to come to the New World and spread Christianity, and they were determined to do so. Document 1 explains that from the minute they arrived to the Americas, the Europeans were instilling their religion into the Native people through friendship and gifts. Not to mention, Document 6 states, “missions were built to help spread Christianity.” It also says, “missions and settlements helped spread European languages.” By looking at Latin America today we can see how much the Spanish and Portuguese has helped mold what it is
Columbian Exchange: The Columbian Exchange was an exchange of peoples, animals, diseases, and foods between hemispheres. Foods and diseases from the New World, such as maize, potatoes, and syphilis, were carried to Europe. Food, livestock, and diseases, such as wheat, barley, cattle, horses, smallpox, measles, and influenza, traveled across the Atlantic to the New World. This term is
The most important person of the Columbian Exchange should be mentioned is Christopher Columbus (1451-1506), the Italian navigator and explorer. Columbus had sailed across the Atlantic four times which supported by Isabella, the queen of Spain. As a consequence, he found the “New World” which is America,
The Columbian exchange was one of the largest transfer of goods, human population, and etc between the New and Old world. These goods and other things changed the course of both world as we know it. In the Old World, new crops such as corn and potatoes were brought. These crops are able to stand harsh environment and able to grow in short amount of time. To the New World goods such as wheat, onions, and rice were brought. Also, ideas and technology were introduced to New World. However, The things coming from the Old World were contaminated with diseases that nearly wiped out the natives of New World. The people in from the Old World took advantage of the defenseless natives and enslaved them. The natives were forced into cheap and unfair labor.
Dating back to the first occurrence of European colonization in the New World, Europeans have advanced their agenda of territorial expansion through the conquering of indigenous peoples. Clashes of culture brought forth a series of conflicts between Native Americans and European settlers that centered around differing religious beliefs and land ideologies. A tidal wave of new diseases also severely weakened the Native American population across the continent, leaving them vulnerable to the increased influx of European settlements. Over the span of 500 years, European impact would eradicate an estimated 60 million Native Americans ("Native North Americans”).
“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
The European influences to the Native Americans were Europeans carried the new diseases to the Indians. “Europeans were used to these diseases, but Indian people had no resistance to them. Sometimes the illnesses spread through direct contact with colonists. Other times, they were transmitted as Indians traded with one another. The result of this contact with European germs was horrible. Sometimes whole villages perished in a short time” (Kincheloe). Slave trade was another influence to American Indians. Europeans soon realized that they could provide commercial goods such as tools and weapons to some American Indian tribes that would bring them other Indians captured in tribal wars, and these captured Indians were bought and sold as slaves. Therefore, “slavery led to warfare among tribes and too much hardship. Many tribes had to move to escape the slave trade, which destroyed some tribes completely. In time, the practice of enslaving Native peoples ended. However, it had greatly affected American Indians of the South and the Southwest” (Kinchloe). Lastly, Europeans change Native America and African’ roots. Native Americans
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
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.
In the wars between Native Americans and Europeans, there advanced technology such as muskets gave them a huge advantage. In order to protect themselves many tribes made alliance with certain European settlements. During a series of wars known as the “French-Indian Wars”, many tribes pledge allegiance to either the French or the British in exchange for later protection and trade. Tribes such as the Wampanoag, team up with the British settlers in the Plymouth colony as they “formed a military pact that would simultaneously ensure European safety from harsh winters and hostile Indians, and provide the Wampanoag security from enemy tribes, already partnering up with other European settlers” (Rodgers). But even with these alliances many tribes were still the pawn of their European partners. With war now dominating Indian life, and as a result “Indians became more dependent on European allies for goods and provisions” (First Peoples). Since they were at war they were no longer in their villages manning the fields, they now relied more than ever on the help from Europeans. The result of the warring and increased dependence caused extreme hardships on Native Americans. “As war became endemic in eighteenth-century North America, Indian villages and countryside bore the brunt of the fighting” (first peoples) as crops were destroyed and tribes were forced to move from their land due to the destruction and constant violence. European imperialistic wars, had extremely negative effects on the communities and way of life once lived by Native
In 1492, on a search for an Atlantic route to the West Indies, the explorer Christopher Columbus became the first European to set foot in the Americas after disembarking on the island of Hispaniola. The Spanish, who had financed Columbus’s voyage, wasted little time in sending men to settle and explore the newly discovered land. However, the Spanish settlers were not alone; the Americas were already inhabited by indigenous peoples living in complex societies. The Spanish arrival in the Americas led to the collapse of the great Mesoamerican and Andean civilizations and the mass subjugation of the Amerindian population. The exchange of religion, goods, livestock, and disease between the Spanish and indigenous tribes further transformed Native American societies.
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 Columbian Exchange is the exchange of plants, animals, food, and diseases between Europe and the Americas. In 1492, when Christopher Columbus came to America, he saw plants and animals he had never seen before so he took them back with him to Europe. Columbus began the trade routes which had never been established between Europe and the Americas so his voyages initiated the interchange of plants between the Eastern and Western Hemispheres, which doubled the food crop resources available to people on both sides of the Atlantic.
The Effects of Colonization on the Native Americans Native Americans had inherited the land now called America and eventually their lives were destroyed due to European colonization. When the Europeans arrived and settled, they changed the Native American way of life for the worse. These changes were caused by a number of factors including disease, loss of land, attempts to export religion, and laws, which violated Native American culture. Native Americans never came in contact with diseases that developed in the Old World because they were separated from Asia, Africa, and Europe when ocean levels rose following the end of the last Ice Age. Diseases like smallpox, measles, pneumonia, influenza, and malaria were unknown to the Native Americans until the Europeans brought these diseases over time to them.
During the time frame of 1450-1750, the Columbian Exchange was at its height of power and influence. Many products were introduced from foreign lands, like animals such as cattle, chickens, and horse, and agriculture such as potatoes, bananas, and avocados. Diseases also became widespread and persisted to distant lands where it wreaked devastation upon the non-immunized people. One such influential product during this time period was the cacao, or more commonly known as chocolate. First discovered and used in the Americas, cacao beans quickly traveled to and became a popular treat in European lands. It was valuable in the New World and even used as a currency by the Aztecs. Only the rich and privileged were allowed to purchase the valuable item in the beginning. Cacao was even used in religious ceremonies by the native people. When it moved to Europe and other lands, it also created a lot of stir. The cacao plant had quite a large impact upon the Columbian Exchange.
Columbus travels brought a tragic history of Native Americans, thousands of people were killed by the disease from the encounter. Native American homes were destroyed under Europeans control. Despite all the negativity of Columbus’ journey, advantages also appeared. For example, Columbus made communication and trade possible between Europe and the Americas. He brought tomatoes, chocolate, potatoes, corn, green beans, peanuts, vanilla, pineapple, and turkey to Europe which had transformed the European diet. In return, he introduced sugar, cattle, pigs, glovers, gingers, cardamom and almonds to the Indians. Columbus’ journey had complete transformed Native American lives in some good ways but however, it had left a tragic imprint in Native American