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The Columbian Exchange: Film Analysis

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The Columbian Exchange was a term coined by Crosby in 1972 describing the environmental effects of Columbus’ discovery of the continents of America. This phenomenon essentially led to the homogenisation of the New World and the Old World with the exchange of animals and plants and therefore to some extent the environment of both worlds. However, the emphasis on the advantages the Old World had over the New World and the large losses of lives of the New World natives as a result of the exchange might skewer the magnitude of the impacts of the exchange on both worlds. For instance, the exchange may be portrayed as a one-sided complete take over and transformation of the New World by the Old World rather than as a mixing of different aspects of …show more content…

Instead of the image of Europeans transforming America in their image, the film describes a new global environment born from the interaction of the New World and the Old World after the Columbian Exchange. Highlighted in both films is the horse and its establishment with image of the Native American. The horses that escaped ran wild and flourished in the wide plains of North America. This was a blessing for the nomadic tribes in the Central Plains who then domesticated these wild horses which helped them in their bison hunts (Kersken & Trebbi, 2009). This shows an emergence of a new culture from the mixing of the New World and the …show more content…

Domesticated animals were a key reason for difference between the level of civilisations in the New World and the Old World and along with diseases, gave Europeans an advantage in the New World. Although the Columbian Exchange saw the exchange of animals and plants between both worlds, the impacts on the New World were portrayed to be of a greater magnitude to the extent that the New World was almost transformed into the image of the Old World (Kersken & Trebbi, 2009). This portrayal focuses on the mortality of the natives and the ecological imperialism but takes attention away from other interactions between the New and the Old World. Therefore, a more balanced view of the Columbian Exchange creating a new global environment from both the Old and the New would be more reflective of the current world we live in where environments are no longer isolated from one another and can affect one another at many different

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The Columbian Exchange was about the New World and old world populations after Christopher Columbus sailed to and discovered America in 1942. It not gains and loss. Had to do with food, diseases, and ideas. Eastern Hemisphere gained from the Columbian Exchange in many ways. Discoveries of new supplies of metals are perhaps the biggest.

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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 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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Historians differ on what they think about the net result of the European arrival in the New World. Considering that the Columbian Exchange, which refers to “exchange of plants, animals, people, disease, and culture between Afro-Eurasia and the Americas after Columbus sailed to the Americas in 1492,” led to possibly tens of millions of deaths on the side of the American Indians, but also enabled agricultural and technological trade (Henretta et al. 42), I cannot help but reflect on whether the effects should be addressed as a historical or a moral question. The impact that European contact had on the indigenous populations of North America should be understood as a moral question because first, treating it as a historical question is difficult due to lack of reliable historical evidence; second, the meaning of compelling historical claims is contestable as the academic historian perspective tends to view the American Indian oral history as invalid; and finally, what happened to the native Indians is morally repulsive and must be discussed as such. The consequences of European contact should be answered as a moral question because historically, it is hard to be historically objective in the absence of valid and dependable historical evidence.

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The intended audience of the article “ The Columbian Exchange- a History of Disease, Food and Ideas” are scholars and students. The article has large amount of statistics provided about the amount of production of certain foods in certain countries, the amount of exchange between the old world and the new world and the top consuming countries for various new world foods. The foods discovered also includes their benefits and harms. 2. The author’s main argument is that the new world has several impacts on the old world which includes many pros and cons.

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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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