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Columbian Exchange Research Paper

1076 Words5 Pages

Lianis Del Valle
February 23,2016
Period.02
Mrs. Hoar

The Columbian exchange that happened in the year of 1492 had economical, ecological,and social effects on today’s world. What is the Columbian exchange? The Columbian exchange was the widespread transfer of animals, plants, culture, human populations, technology, and ideas between the American and Afro-Eurasian hemispheres in the 15th and 16th centuries, related to European colonization and trade after Christopher Columbus' 1492 voyage. In that voyage many plants, animals, and differ types of culture came to North America. One old world plant that came from Europe to North America is sugar cane, which was brought over by Christopher Columbus on his voyage. Sugar cane has effected north …show more content…

Even though sugar cane is native to southeast Asia. Spanish colonizers snipped seeds from Columbus' fields in the Dominican Republic and planted them throughout their burgeoning Caribbean colonies. Christopher Columbus is credited with taking the first sugarcane to the New World in 1493 however as stated before Spanish colonizers are responsible for introducing the seed. Soon Hispaniola had largely reproduced the industrial processing techniques developed in the Atlantic and made its first shipments of sugar to Europe around 1516.Europeans were already addicted to sugar and used it for many different things in the eastern colonies. By the mid-1520s, large quantities of sugar were being shipped from Brazil to Lisbon. The sweet granular substance proved a sensation among its elite customers, and demand skyrocketed. Cultivation and processing of sugar quickly spread throughout the Antilles and the Brazilian littoral as well as to Mexico, Paraguay, and South America’s Pacific …show more content…

Many ecological effects include Habitat loss, cumulative impacts and impacts on biodiversity, Excessive water consumption in cultivation, Soil erosion, declining soil health and fertility, Agrochemical use, Water pollution, Sugarcane processing, Farming marginal lands , and Global sugar trends with environmental implications. Historical clearing of a wide range of unique habitats for sugarcane cultivation is probably one of the most significant causes of biodiversity loss from agriculture on the planet. Some major effects water pollution had were Diversion from rivers, in extreme cases exposing dry

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