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Compare The Environmental Effects Of The Columbian Exchange

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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 …show more content…

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 …show more content…

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

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Also, the hygiene factor was important, the Indians bathed regularly while the Europeans did not. This in my option had to play a huge part in the fact that disease was not common until the Europeans came to this new world. Mann continues to show how each society lived. We see that Europeans lived with their animals which in turn caused them to become sick. They could keep these diseases from spreading, by quarantine and medicine.

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The Columbian Exchange between the new world and the old world significantly change people’s lives. After 1492, Europeans brought in horses to America which changes the nomadic Native American groups’ living from riding on buffalos to horses. This interchange also change the diet of the rest of the world with foods such as corns (maize), potatoes which are major diet for European nowadays. 
Besides all the animals from old world to the new world, Spanish also brought in the diseases that Native Americans were not immune of, such as smallpox which led to a large amount of Native Americans’ deaths.

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The Exchange also brought new diseases to both hemispheres, though the effects were greatest in the Americas. Smallpox from the Old World wiped out millions of the Native American population to mere fractions of their original

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The Columbian Exchange, also known as The Great Exchange, is one of the most significant events in the history of world. The term is used to describe the widespread exchange of foods, animals, human populations (including slaves),plants, diseases, and ideas from the New world and the old. this occurred after 1492. Many goods were exchanged between and it started a revolution in the Americas, Africa and in Europe. The exchange got its name when Christopher Columbus voyage started an era of a tremendous amount of exchange between the New and Old World that resulted in this revolution.

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During this time, Columbus discovered the Eastern hemisphere and completely changed the world. As more and more Europeans came to the new world, they brought over all kinds of diseases. Due to this, the Native American population plummeted. From 1520 to about 1600, the indigenous population in central Mexico went from roughly 25 million to under 2 million (Document 10). Disease played a huge role in this and was primarily the cause of these

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I completely agree disease was the key factor in the depopulation of Native-Americans in the Americas for the following reasons 1-These illnesses, such as Influenza, measles, chicken pox, mums, typhus, and smallpox known as European disease are infectious disease that spread in contact. Even though we have more sophisticated antibiotic today, doctors still struggle to treat them. It is understandable at the time of the Native American that those illnesses were fatal because the sanitation was very poor, and the health care was far developed. As a result millions died.

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In fact, “Native Americans died in appalling numbers, in many cases up to 90 percent of the population.” The diseases were at its worst in the Aztec and Inca Empires since the people lived close together. However, in the old world, disease related deaths were not nearly as prevalent as in the Americas. The reason for this difference is that the Native Americans had no domesticated animals (except llamas), which resulted in no acquired immunities to old world diseases.

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The Columbian Exchange was the exchange of goods animals and plants from one country to another. The Columbian Exchange had many impacts. Some of them can still be seen today. One example is introduction of new species. Another is the slave trade that happened.

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Some diseases tramsitted by the Europens were diseases such as “smallpox, measles, malaria, yellow fever, influenza,” (Malone, Cary et al.) and other Old Wolrd diseases. This devestaing elemet of the transmisson of European diseases is the easibility in which the diseases were passed; through air. Native Americans didnt have to come inot contact with Europeans to become infected with their diseases. Their immune systems hadnt experienced the Old World diseases, populations and cultures were wiped

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The Colombian exchange created a great cultural impact on The Americas which can be seen even today. Wiping out up to ninety percent of Native Americans, the settlers that came to America created a biological imperialism on another scale. The demand from European countries for exportation quickly created a market that settlers could benefit from and Native Americans could not compete with. Deforestation started on a massive scale due to the high availability of lumber, and seas quickly started to be depleted of fish. The introduction of livestock and agriculture created an environmental revolution.

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The Columbian Exchange was a widespread trade of animals, plants, and diseases. This system allowed us to have access to these items in our everyday lives. I have never realized how much we all have taken many items for granted. For instance, If it wasn 't for the Columbian Exchange, I wouldn 't be able stay awake for my morning classes. I drink a cup of coffee every morning in order to get through my morning classes.

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The European conquerors had built up an immunity to certain diseases that were common in Europe. Some of the diseases that decimated the Indian population included the following: smallpox, measles, influenza, typhus, and the bubonic plague. Centuries of living near livestock had basically inoculated the European settlers against these diseases. However the Indians were not used to such diseases, resulting in a dramatic decline in the Native American population. According to Diamond, smallpox was a major role in the domination of the Americas by the Europeans.

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The Columbian Exchange refers to the monumental transfer of goods such as: ideas, foods, animals, religions, cultures, and even diseases between Afroeurasia and the Americas after Christopher Columbus’ voyage in 1492. The significance of the Columbian Exchange is that it created a lasting tie between the Old and New Worlds that established globalization and reshaped history itself (Garcia, Columbian Exchange). Worlds that had been separated by vast oceans for years began to merge and transform the life on both sides of the Atlantic (The Effects of the Columbian Exchange). This massive exchange of goods gave rise to social, political, and economic developments that dramatically impacted the world (Garcia, Columbian Exchange). During this time,

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During the early 1400’s European exploration initiated changes in technology, farming, disease and other cultural things ultimately impacting the Native Americans and Europeans. Throughout Columbus’ voyages, he initiated the global exchange that changed the world. The exchange of plants, animals, and diseases between the Old and New World began soon after Columbus returned to Spain from the Americas. These changes had multiple effects, that were both positive and negative. Although the Columbian Exchange had numerous benefits and drawbacks but the drawbacks outweighs the benefits.

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During the late 1400s and the early 1500s, European expeditioners began to explore the New World. Native Americans, who were living in America originally, were much different than the Europeans arriving at the New World; they had a different culture, diet, and religion. Eventually, both the Native Americans and the European colonists exchanged different aspects of their life. For example, Native Americans gave the Europeans corn, and the Europeans in return gave them modern weapons, such as various types of guns. This type of trade was called “the Columbian Exchange.”

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