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The impacts of the Columbian exchange
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The impacts of the Columbian exchange
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In Chapter 1, it talked about how the world population was decreasing in the 1400s, after the Black Death. The population in 1400 was around 6% of the population today and 80% were peasants. One thing that decreased the population was climate change. The better the climate, the more the crops improved, which sustained an increasing population. As Arizonians, we never really face the problem of having dying crops due to the cold weather. Another factor was the Agricultural Revolution. The agricultural surplus of food created during the revolution led to a separation in society between those who were and were not producing foods. It also gave ride to cities and writing. Cities interacted with each other through trade. But if the goods were extremely important, rulers would take over the land that the goods came from and led to the rise of empires. One of the subsections in chapter 1 that I enjoyed reading was “Towns and Cities in 1400”. The world’s largest cities in 1400 accounted …show more content…
This also brought infectious diseases into the New World that happened to decrease the Native American population. But the positive side to this is it allowed the Old and New World to exchange foods, which happened to change the European diet in a good way. When I was younger, I remember learning about the Columbian Exchange, but I was only taught about how Christopher discovered America, never about the diseases and how it opened food exchanges. One of the diseases that was brought down was smallpox. It ended up killing a majority of the Native American population. Other diseases that were brought from the voyages were measles, influenza, bubonic plague, chicken pox, whooping cough, and many more. Unfortunately, these diseases were brought into the New World without any cure or immunity. Thankfully, to the vaccinations we have now, I haven’t had any of these, including the chicken
In Alfred J. Crosby’s book, The Columbian Exchange, the author examines the impact of the New World on the Old World, but also the impact the Old World had on the New World. One key distinction Crosby notes is how the discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus challenged the intellectual systems of Christianity and Aristotelianism. Most notably, the discovery of a world that was, in fact, “new” was so contradictory to scholarly work of the past, such as Aristotle or found in the Bible, that assumptions were made on where to fit the New World into a Christian and Aristotelian world. For example, previous findings under Aristotle, which were still utilized into the 15th Century, had “quite logically supposed the equatorial zone of
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.
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 arrival to the Americas, land that had already been established by the Natives, resulted in a spread of fatal diseases. 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 Europeans.
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.
This was the positive effect of the encounter and it was largely responsible for the doubling of the world’s population over 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.
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.
The origins of globalization can be traced many centuries back; however the initial date remains a highly controversial issue amongst historians to this day. Nonetheless, one fact is coherent; it played a big influence during the formation of collective identity group’s legacies. In addition, European monarchs also impacted many cultural groups through their quest for imperialism during the “Age of Discovery”. The following quote does an excellent job illustrating the consequences of European expansion. “Europe’s encounter with and treatment of the world’s tribal people is, a tale of extraordinary human achievement in adversity, conferring on the victors much of the possession of the worlds resources.” To reiterate, European expansion was
Imported diseases were more devastating to Native Americans. These diseases like measles, typhoid, cholera, and Small Pox were new to Native Americans, and they had not built up any internal immunities or created any medicine to prevent or
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.
The Colombian Exchange was an extensive exchange between the eastern and western hemispheres as knows as the Old World and New World. The Colombian exchange greatly affects almost every society. It prompted both voluntary and forced migration of millions of human beings. There are both positive and negative effects that you can see from the Colombian Exchange. The Colombian Exchange explorers created contact between Europe and the Americas. The interaction with Native Americans began the exchange of animals, plants, disease, and weapons. The most significant effects that the Colombian Exchange had on the Old World and New World were its changes in agriculture, disease, culture, and its effects on ecology.
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.
The Columbian exchange was the exchange of goods and products that occurred when the Europeans came to America. Some of the items exchanged included potatoes and tomatoes, which originated in America, and wheat and rice, which originated in Europe. Because of this exchange, certain dishes are possible to be made. For example, tomatoes are a popular ingredient in Italian dishes, but they originated in America. Because of the Columbian exchange, Italians were able to adapt tomatoes to be included in their dishes. Similarly, there are many dishes which also cannot be possible without the exchange. This will go in-depth into a few dishes and see if they could be made without the Columbian exchange.
The European discovery of the Americas while viewed by some as costly, resulted in benefits for the worlds it touched. Not only did the Europeans bring new technology and religions to the Americas, but they also created a new nation. This new nation is now one of the most diverse and accepting nations, with one of the most stable governments. A major drawback was the enslavement of millions of innocent Africans as well as slaughtering Indians. While most countries have pretty messy histories, some may argue that this was exceptionally bad. Based on these reasons the result of the European discovery of the Americas was beneficial to the worlds they touched and the world as a whole.