Cultures: The Effect Of Culture From The Hamburger To Smallpox

The Effect of Cultures

From the Hamburger to Smallpox, many products thought to have distinct origins have instead come about due to multiple countries playing an equal part in its development. Over the centuries people migrated and have often unintentionally introduced and been introduced to new products. For a variety of reason, people are still moving and spreading ideas today. Not every exchange is a fair give and take, often terrible disease are spread through intercultural contact.Vastly different cultures have had to interact since the beginning of time, no matter what caused the exchange, each culture receives something that could dramatically affect its long-term future. Either way, both cultures are permanently changed, and undeniably

In the latter part of the Dark Ages, European society had stopped growing in areas of art, math, and science, due to the collapse of the Roman Empire. Despite the lapse in hygiene and cultural thinking, European STEM was jump-started by a series of wars called The Crusades. When Muslims invaded Israel, the European Christians fought to reclaim the Holy Land, many traveled thousands of miles from their homes to fight in the Mediterranean. When the soldiers arrived they found an entirely new world full of new foods, cultures, ideas, and sciences, they brought parts of the new culture back with them in the form of new spices, new ideas, and new materials (Hoerder). The new spices changed and developed food, new ideas inspired architecture, fashion, social norms, and new materials like silk, jade, and ivory brought new wealth to flood Europe's economy (DeRoo).Through war, Europe had been exposed to places, and goods forgot by their

After the discovery of the Americas in 1492 by Christopher Columbus, the Americas and Europe begin to trade. New World products like corn, tomatoes, potatoes, chocolate, hot peppers, gold, silver, and jewels, all made their way to Europe, and Africa. These products were so revolutionary, they provided substance for thousands of Europeans.Russia and Ireland gained a stable reliable crop that would grow in their soil, Italy found a fruit they could not live without, the rich from all of Europe found a decadent drink that hit the spot every time. The Old World had things to trade such as pigs, chickens, horses, worms, bees, flu, smallpox, the black plague, dysentery, and people. The New World was changed more dramatically than the Old and in less time. Due to disease the native population of the Americas died in masses, new animals redefined the landscape, and the mountains were torn apart looking for gold. As best summarized by Jordan in The Columbian Exchange, “ The Columbian Exchange brought together previously isolated populations from Europe, Africa, and the Americas in the new world colonies over a relatively short period of time. One of the largest things that the Columbian Exchange globalized was people, Native American, African, and Europeans, all living in the same area for