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Negative Effects Of The Columbian Exchange

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Historians estimate that around ninety percent of the first Americans had died in between 1492 and 1650, the era of Columbian Exchange (Nunn, Qian). This loss is still considered to be one of the largest and the most horrifying demographic disasters in human history (Nunn, Qian). The massive transfer of plants, animals, ideas, people, and disease between the Old World and the New World was the cause for this disaster and many other dramatic transformations made in America. The Columbian Exchange had more negative than positive effects on America, as this exchange greatly benefited the Europeans and their colonies while bringing catastrophe to the environment, the people, ideas, and the culture of America.
When Columbus landed in the Americas …show more content…

When two different worlds joined together, one was almost demolished (Nunn, Qian). The introduction of new plants, new animals, and new ways of production negatively affected the methods of food production and the lands of America. First of all, the English colonists came to settle down on the American land, some seeking religious freedom, others sent as indentured servants, and others to seeking to obtain profit from the new land (Mintz, McNeil). These permanent settlements reshaped the land according to the ideal styles of European agriculture (Mintz, McNeil). In order to efficiently make profit out of farming and selling, the Europeans made plantations for cash crops like tobacco and sugar (Nunn, Qian). To create these huge plantations, they had to clear out massive amount of land by stripping and burning forests (Crosby). This harmed the environment of America and destroyed millions of acres of forest (Mintz, McNeil). The Europeans also unintentionally introduced weeds to the land, which invaded crops by reducing farm and forest productivity (Mintz, McNeil). This led to a disorder of the native agriculture system and the replacement of the native plants by the plants from the Old World, permanently transforming the American environment (MWL). The introduction of new animals also brought negative consequences because cattle, goats, horses, sheep, and other new grazing animals ate up indigenous

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The Columbian exchange is exactly what it sounds; it's what the new world and old world gained with the explorations of the America’s. The Columbian exchange sounds like a positive aspects but it carries both negative and positive connotation as the ‘Columbian exchange’ brought diseases, foods, and new ideas following the voyage of the ever-famous Christopher Columbus. The creation of the new world – about 90 percent of the native have disappeared, but “it was exchanges of animal and plants that made the new world possible”. The introduction of the new specifics of foods like, potatoes became essential to the old world, as it can grow In the soil of the old world that has been over used (Nunn). Corn was also brought from the new world to

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Believe it or not, one of the things with the biggest impact was earthworms, the worms altered the whole ecosystem as we know it today. Not only did the Europeans bring many things over seas to the New World, they also took many things out of the New World. The taking of the resources and bringing things to the New World is often referred to as the “Columbian Exchange”. Not only did he bring and take, columbus used the fertile land of the New World in order to grow things in mass quantities in order to profit off of it. Some examples this is tobacco.

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Europeans, who settled in the New World, likewise developed Old World products, for example, wheat and apples. Europeans in sowing these products additionally incidentally presented different Old World weeds - love seat grass, dandelion, shepherd's handbag, groundsel, sow thorn, and chickweeds. In stripping and consuming woodlands with a specific end goal to plant, European pioneers presented local vegetation to coordinate daylight and to trained creatures brought from the Old World. New World verdure couldn't endure this anxiety. To put it plainly, it changed European harvests and weeds changed the scene of the New World.

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