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Economic impact of columbian exchange
Economic impact of columbian exchange
Economic impact of columbian exchange
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Environment and Development There were many new world crops for the Spanish to cultivate, one being maize. This became a staple in their society. A century after Columbus had crossed the ocean; New Spain had become a strong empire. The access to furs had a strong influence on the New French way of life.
Topics Notes A.) Spanish exploration and conquest of the Americas were accompanied and furthered by widespread deadly epidemics that devastated native populations and by the introduction of crops and animals not found in the Americas Diseases such as Smallpox devastated native populations, making it easier for Spanish explorers to take over. They also introduced animals such as chickens, pigs, and horses to the native populations. B) The encomienda system, Spanish colonial economies marshaled Native American labor to support plantation-based agriculture and extract precious metals and other resources.
The Columbian Exchange was an exchange between the New World and the Old World of plants, animals, people, disease, and culture. Many of the impacts were positive for both but some of the exchanges were negative. The New World gave the Old World staple foods including one of the most important cash crops, corn. It became a very important food for men and livestock.
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.
Although we mainly speak of spices when we talk about the Colombian Exchange or Christopher Columbus’s journey, we never mention the plants and crops that were also spread all across the trading route. There was never and coffee in Columbia, or oranges in Florida, or maize in many Latin American countries. Once trade began, these crops quickly spread all across the continent and flourished in some environments and quickly died out in other environments due to its climate. This helped both the new settlers and the natives, as it benefited both parties adapt also. Although the new settlers and the traders were the ones who brought the crops to the New World, such like maize, coffee, beans, avocadoes, and peanuts.
This essay will define the meaning of Columbian Exchange and how did the Columbian Exchange effect both the America and Europe. The Columbian Exchange is not only about exchange goods between the Europe, Africa, and America, but it was also seen as a challenge of facing new diseases at that time, and also new “economic opportunities and new ideas demanded new kinds of political and economic organizations.” These factors played a huge role in America and Europe’ history and community during the period of the age of exploration. Columbian Exchange is a transformation of society, it is an introduction of animals, plants, and crops, both Americas to Europe, and Europe to America. The Columbian Exchange was the most tragic trade among the three continents.
The Columbian Exchange was a significant event in world history that had a profound impact on the environment and societies of the Americas, Europe, Africa, and Asia. It was tied into the readings by briefly beginning up the Columbian exchange and what a major event it was. The Columbian Exchange brought both positive and negative consequences for the societies involved. The introduction of new crops such as wheat and sugar allowed for increased food production and larger populations in the Americas. The arrival of animals such as cows and horses also had a significant impact on the economies and societies of Mexico and Chile, providing new sources of food and labor.
Plants such as beans, squash, chili peppers, sunflowers, peanuts, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, avocado, and pineapple were exchanged, but the most important were sugarcane, maize, and potatoes. Sugarcane was introduced on Columbus second voyage to the America’s and was one of the largest cash crops in history. It still is one of the largest today too. Maize was a New World crop that was essential to the European diet and supported economies and sustained the population growth.
Items brought from the Americas to the Old World included, pumpkins, cashews, peanuts, chocolate, vanilla, black pepper, turkey, potatoes, coffee, lettuce, pineapples, sunflowers, and cabbage. Potatoes became popular in Europe because it was easy to grow and store for long periods of time. Maze became a staple food in
Although the arrival of Christopher Columbus to the New World did not bode well for the Native Americans, he sparked a momentous, cross-cultural trade of ideas, goods, and alas, diseases. Known as the Columbian Exchange, it ultimately left a lasting positive effect on both the New World and the Old World in spite of short-term deadly epidemics. The world would likely be very different if it were not for the Columbian Exchange. To illustrate, the introduction of European grains such as wheat, barley, and rye to the Americas proved extremely beneficial for the world, even in the present. According to The Columbian Exchange by John R. McNeill, wheat thrived in the temperate climates of the Americas and in the highlands of Mexico.
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.
When Europeans crossed the Atlantic and colonized the New World they sparked a flow of changes in Native American culture” (Ross, 2010). Although the flow of goods and technology benefited both worlds in the trade, with the Columbian Exchange ensued negative impacts as well, with disease being the largest of them all. The diseases brought over by the Spanish to the Americas, including the deadly smallpox, wiped out populations and broke down power structures. The Columbian Exchange can be considered a turning point in history because this was the time when Europe was introduced to the Americas as a trading partner, and the trade began the colonization of the Americas by the Spanish.
Corn cultivation reached other parts of North America later on. The production of maize, beans, and squash, reached the southeastern region of North America at about A.D. 1000. These plants made "three-sister" farming possible.
‘Pre-Columbian Indigenous Americans’ foodways were a foundational aspect to the modern American diet. Food used by Native American tribes would greatly transform the European diet. The study of Mesoamerican foodways allows us think about why important crops such as maize, potato is still widely used today. Foodways studies, particularly Pre-Columbian foodways, are critical to our historical understanding relating to early agricultural practices, political economies, and how plants and animals were domesticated. Great empires such as the Aztecs, Mayans, and Incas inhabited vast lands of Central and South America.
The Columbian Exchange was born as a result of Columbus’s voyage to the Americas in 1492. Also known as the Great Biological Exchange, it was a world wide trade of plants, animals, and diseases in the 15th and 16th centuries. Many benefits and disadvantages came about this exchange during a great time of expansion in the world. The most detriment occurred in the “New World,” while Europe received many benefits of new crops.
