Compare The Environmental Effects Of The Columbian Exchange

The Colombian exchange had both environmental and demographic effects on the Americas and Europe. Following Christopher Columbus' landing in the Americas in 1492, Europeans included the Americas into their global trade network, which launched the Columbian Exchange. In other words, the Colombian exchange is the global exchange of plants, animals, foods, crops, humans, and diseases. All of these goods that were exchanged revolutionized the worlds in demographic and environmental changes. The exchange of goods lasted for several decades. The goods that were exchanged had a significant impact on the environment and the civilizations. Demographic changes are changes with the human population based on size, structure, and distribution. Environmental

Europe and America had two very different effects with population. Populations in the Americas decreased while populations in Europe increased. The reason why the Americas population increased is because when encountering the Europeans, the Europeans gave the Americas diseases. European colonization of the Americas led to the spread of diseases— including smallpox, measles, and influenza that were endemic in the Eastern Hemisphere among Amerindian populations and the unintentional transfer of vermin, including mosquitoes and rats. These diseases, the Americas had not formed a resistant to and had never been exposed to before. This means that the Americas were more likely to get these diseases seeing how their bodies are not prepared to defend themselves against them. The Europeans however, had the complete opposite effect. While the Americas population decreased, the European population increased. This is because when the Europeans started trading with the Americas, they could get an influx of valuable crops. In other words, the gaining of more crops meant more food for the population allowing people residing in Europe to eat more and live long healthy lives. This also meant more children could be born without the worry of enough food being in the house. This allowed the population increase in

In other words, when new animals were introduced to Europe, nothing happened to the environment. This was a positive effect for Europe seeing how they were only benefiting from the introducing of new animals. The Americas however, had a different reaction. The introduction of new animals caused a negative impact on their environment. It caused overgrazing, which is when farmers allow for grasslands to be grazed so heavily that the vegetation is damaged and the ground becomes liable to erosion. When the land becomes heavily gazed or over grazed, this ruins the soil. Due to overgrazing by cattle, the cover of vegetation almost gets removed from the land. The soil becomes exposed and gets eroded by the action of strong wind and rainfall. When the livestock graze upon them heavily, even the root stocks which carry the reserve food or regeneration get destroyed. Now some other species appear in their place. These secondary species are hardier and are less nutritive in nature. This means that the soil has been damaged completely and now cannot be used to graze anymore life stock. This also means that no crops can be planted in the soil. This is a huge negative impact on the