Who Is Responsible For The Columbian Exchange

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When Columbus brought together the Old and New World in 1492, it began the Columbian Exchange. They exchanged everything from crops, germs, and animals and it changed the way of life for the Native people of the New World and the Old World forever. Even though the smallpox virus hit the people of the New World so hard they almost got wiped out, the people in the Old World took advantage of it so they got corn and great soil for sugarcane. But how did it all begin? Before the Columbian Exchange, Europe was disconnected from the huge Asian Trade system and needed a new route to get there. Columbus said he had a plan and Queen Isabella of Spain needed resources, so she took a risk and sponsored Christopher Columbus to sail the ocean blue. He eventually reached today’s Hati and the Dominican Republic, but thought he was in India and wrote back to the King and Queen saying he would bring back gold, spices, cotton, and slaves. Little did he know he would be responsible for starting the Columbian Exchange. …show more content…

This was the smallpox virus and because the people there had a lack of resistance for Old World diseases it destroyed them. Even though they were healthy compared to conquistadors, they had no chance to pass on any genetic resistance or to become immune from childhood. The first smallpox epidemic in the New World was among the Taino, the first people Columbus encountered, was in 1518. Eventually, up to 50-90% of the Native people died from the virus, even striking the people before the Spanish entered new lands in South and Central America. This made the people weak and easy to take over resulting in Spain taking over lands very quickly and