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Distinctive Demographics Of The Columbian Exchange

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The Columbian Exchange primarily stemmed from the European’s economic thirst. However, they had no clue a simple journey to discover faster trade routes would lead to such a dramatic world change. On October 12, 1492, Christopher Columbus and 90 brave crewmen set sail to discover faster more efficient trade routes to Asia. However, this journey turned into them discovering a New World with almost endless opportunities to grow not only economically, but also intellectually. They discovered new demographics, agriculture, and pathogens. Columbus and his crew may not have known it at the time, but they would change history as we know it today. The distinctive demographics of this New World shocked Columbus and his men. The extreme culture and …show more content…

Sugar originated from the Old World, but it was immediately clear to the Europeans that sugar was much better suited for cultivation in the New World. However, sugar cane had much more value then originally thought. When looking at the basic economic structure of supply and demand, it is clear that the immensely improved cultivation and efficiency of sugar production drove production up and price down, leading to more demand at a lower value. The improved efficiency of sugar production opened up a new market and a completely different demographic. However, this improved efficiency didn’t occur until about 1519 during King Charles V rule. For example in the book The Columbian Exchange Crosby says “The growth of the sugar industry was painfully slow until Charles V intervened, ordering that sugar masters and mill technicians be recruited from the Canaries, and authorizing loans to build sugar mills on Espanola.” (Pg. 68/ The Columbian Exchange) King Charles V saw the economic promise in sugar and invested money and time into the expansion of the …show more content…

The Labor Theory of Value explains that even fertile land is useless without labor or in other terms, human capitol. The Europeans knew that the immense death of the Natives posed labor problems, so they looked to Africa because hey had already had contact with the inhabitants in recent years and knew they had some pestilence to their diseases. What most African-Americans today don’t realize is the fact that Africans weren’t just captured and brought to America, local tribes sold their fellow countrymen in exchange for cash crops. By no means am I justifying the horrible treatment towards the slaves, but the Europeans saw them as human capitol they paid for, not people. The slaves made economic efficiency go through the roof. However, because the slaves were only African and Native decent, it created immense racial prejudice. For example Crosby states in The Columbian Exchange “In the Americas the Europeans’ demand for their own kinds of food was strengthened by social and racial prejudice.” (Pg. 106/ The Columbian Exchange) The Europeans original thirst for economic power turned into an obsession for demographic dominance. Even to this day we struggle with racial segregation and

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The Columbian Exchange refers to the reestablishment of the Old and New World including the changes of plants, animals and bacteria. The New World contained many new resources that the Europeans have never seen before, therefore this led to many changes that they would have to get used to very quickly. The exchange of crops such as maize to China and white potato to Ireland are stimulant to population growth in the Old World. This impacted the lives of the people in Europe because of the shift in their food supply.

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What would eventually become the start point of what is today called the Columbian Exchange started about 500 years ago when Christopher Columbus and his 3 ships set off to from Spain to find India. Instead of India, they discovered the New World, America. The exchange of animals and plants that took place after this would come to be very important to Europe and America. After Columbus and his 3 ships arrived and reported back to queen Isabel another 17 ships were sent off to the New World, the word about the far away land spread along Europe and everybody wanted to take a part of this amazing land.

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The Columbian Exchange was a period of cultural and biological exchanges between the New World and the Old World. Christopher Columbus when he was out on his second voyage in 1493 had introduced new things to each place. All different things were being traded and new ideas had came about. Plants, diseases, and technology were some of the ideas that were exchanged during the Columbian Exchange. Plants were one of the items exchanged during the Columbian Exchange.

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The arrival of the Europeans in the modern day North and South America was not a peaceful one considering their plan was to subdue and conquer the land belonging to the millions of inhabitants. The Europeans can be said to have started a trend of racism and bigotry against minorities. Slavery was a direct result of one race thinking they are

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One of the many reasons was that Europeans began to believe that the more territory they obtained control for their colonies, the more power one could obtain it would become more solid it would become seen by the others. Other reasons for the Europeans to desire control over African land included that many of the natural resources could only be found within Africa, examples such as diamonds, gold, and as time moved on, rubber. Providing new markets to surrounding places so that manufactured goods could be sold for larger profit. Europeans had many motivations for imperializing Africa. The main motivations were more than likely shielded, as they tried presenting themselves as philanthropist, within reality they were making Africa a horrible place to live with brutal treatment of the natives as well as multiple physical and emotional tolls for the people of

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During the thousands of years before the arrival of European contact, the Native American people developed an inventive and creative culture. They had created a very well round colonization among the extensive land. The year 1492 the Spaniards allowed for Christopher Columbus's voyage of discovery began a series of developments. Columbus traveling in hopes of finding faster route to Asia for trade and riches. While he never truly ended up there, the new found land was viewed as an opportunity for new riches.

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In the Americas, the main exports were silver and cash crops, both of which required work that was terribly tedious and exhausting. This led to the overwhelming predominance of slavery in the Americas, since the Europeans were not willing to carry out the hard work themselves. When the Europeans found they lacked a workforce, the sought slaves elsewhere. While the people who were called slaves changed, the institution never did. The same mistreatment, torture, and horrible conditions were evident in American slavery until it was abolished centuries later.

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The Columbian Exchange In 1492, Columbus first steeped onto the continent of the Americas, marking the begging of the Columbian Exchange. The Columbian Exchange has a far reaching impact on both eastern and western hemispheres. Thereby, the discovery of the New World led to the introduction of Native American slaves and corns in the Old World, and the introduction of horses, smallpox, Christianity and Encomienda System in the New World. It greatly changed the lives of both Europeans and Native Americans.

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The Columbian Exchange was a pivotal and devastating period in history. Although, during this exchange Europe, Asia, and America traded goods, they also traded diseases. Most of the exploration done during the 15th century began with somewhat understandable motives. As the explorations progressed their motives turned bloodthirsty. Europe, Asia, and America all had major changes due to the exchange.

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The enslaved Africans were viewed as property, meaning they could be sold and shipped off across the sea for work and labor. The Transatlantic slave trade expanded despite the consequences for the enslaved africans because of economic success, transportation of new goods to new places, and

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