You’re trucking along in AP World History and learn one historical thing after another. History blah bla blah. But, every so often; you come upon something that is super important. Like, Top-5-most-important-things-that-ever-happened-important. Having said that, THE COLUMBIAN EXCHANGE WAS NOT AN EVENT! Columbus didn’t show up in the Caribbean with a box labelled “OLD WORLD”. And, the natives did not have a box labelled “NEW WORLD”. But, over the course of time and stemming from Columbus (hence the name) the two parts of the globe that had been separated for millenia finally became connected. Big Picture: Diseases and livestock go to the Americas and tons of awesome foods and medicines go to Afro-Eurasia. This is the Columbian Exchange.
Embedded Files
Objective:
D. Explain the causes of the Columbian Exchange and its effects on the Eastern and Western Hemispheres.
Theme:
D. ENV (Humans and the Environment)
Skills:
D. ENV
Explain the causes of the Columbian Exchange and its effects on the Eastern and Western Hemispheres.
Historical Development
The new connections between the Eastern and Western Hemispheres resulted in the exchange of new plants, animals, and diseases, known as the Columbian Exchange. Also, European colonization of the Americas led to the unintentional transfer of disease vectors, including mosquitoes and rats, and the spread of diseases that were endemic in the Eastern Hemisphere, including smallpox, measles, and malaria. Some of these diseases substantially reduced the indigenous populations, with catastrophic effects in many areas. American foods became 'staple crops' in various parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa. 'Cash crops' were grown primarily on plantations with coerced labor and were exported mostly to Europe and the Middle East. Afro-Eurasian fruit trees, grains, sugar, and domesticated animals were brought by Europeans to the Americas, while other foods were brought by African slaves. Finally, Populations in Afro-Eurasia benefitted nutritionally from the increased diversity of American food crops.
Art to Know:
Art to Know:
FLORENTINE CODEX (1590),
Friar Bernardino de Sahagun
(an encyclopedic work about the culture of central Mexico compiled by Fray Bernardino de Sahagún Catholic missionary in 1529)
BRAZILIAN ENGENHO (1816)
(This painting, from 1816, shows slaves working the sugar mill at an engenho. An engenho cis a colonial-era Portuguese term for a sugar cane mill)
THE MORNING CHOCOLATE (1780)
Venice, Italy by Pietro Longhi
(Chocolate soon became a fashionable drink of the nobility after the discovery of the Americas--chocolate comes from Mexico)
KING FREDERICK THE GREAT OF PRUSSIA INSPECTING A POTATO CROP (1886)
(During a famine in 1774, Frederick offered free potatoes to the peasants and ordered a national cultivation program)
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