Columbian Exchange Essay

The Columbian Exchange

The term “Columbian Exchange,” first used by Alfred Crosby Jr. in 1972, refers to the movement of organisms. Including plants, animals, and illnesses, from the Old World of Europe and Africa to the New World of the Americas. With Christopher Columbus’ expeditions in 1492, the exchange got underway, and it later picked up speed with Europe’s colonization of the Americas.

Christopher Columbus (1451-1506), an Italian explorer, traveled westward over the Atlantic Ocean in quest of direct ways to the same markets in Asia while sailing under the Spanish flag on behalf of Ferdinand ll of Aragon and his wife Isabella of Castile. On August 3, 1492, Columbus and his ships set sail from Spain for their five-week journey across

The crops that European explorers brought to the Americas in the late 1400s and early 1500s met their need to duplicate their customary diets while upsetting. New World agricultural systems. In order to create breads, olives, and wine-three food essentials to the Spanish diet and closely associated with their Catholic rituals- the Spanish first brought wheat, olive trees, and grapevines. More grains and sugar would eventually make their way over the Atlantic, enabling Europeans to establish huge agricultural estates, first in the Caribbean, then in Mexico and the rest of the Americas. The Transatlantic Slave Trade, a nearly 400- phenomenon, began when the Europeans turned their focus to Africa. Africa not only provided laborers,but also rice, bananas, plantains, lemons, and black eyed peas, which gave colonists and agricultural endeavors additional food sources and financial advantages. Among the plants that crossed the Atlantic on their way eastward were maize potatoes, beans, tomatoes, peanuts, tobacco, and cacao (chocolate). Native Americans smoked and inhaled tobacco around the 1530s, and by then it had become a very lucrative cash crop, particularly in the British Middle Atlantic colonies. The Olmec, the Maya, and Aztec cultures all made use of cacao, which was grown there. Europeans did not enjoy this extremely bitter drink made from cacao bean when it was pounded into a

The dog and the alpaca were two of the few domesticated animals in pre-Columbian America. The bison was the largest mammal in the Americas, yet it resisted being domesticated. Furthermore. The new species had no natural predators in the Americas. Nevertheless, because they ate a lot of indigenous flora, these recently introduced creatures disturbed the natural equilibrium. Europeans were able to travel farther into the interior of the continents thanks to the horse. In battles with native populations, the horse also gave greater speed and height advantages and startled the natives with their presence.(Horgan) The introduction of illnesses from the Old World to the Americas was the most disastrous effect of the Columbian Exchange. Smallpox, measles, mumps, whooping cough, chicken pox, typhus, and influenza were among the deadly pathogens. Hepatitis B, malaria, and yellow fever were added to this lethal illness concoction later on during the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Disease outbreaks destroyed the indigenous people, making it easier for the Spaniards and eventually Europeans to conquer them. The majority of infectious diseases in recorded history have been zoonotic