Embedded Files
The Columbian Exchange
What was the Columbian Exchange and what were the consequences for the inhabitants of the New World?
The Columbian Exchange — the interchange of plants, animals, disease, and technology sparked by Columbus’s voyages to the New World — marked a critical point in history. It allowed ecologies and cultures that had previously been separated by oceans to mix in new and unpredictable ways. It was an interconnected web of events with immediate and extended consequences that could neither be predicted nor controlled.
The Columbian Exchange was the movement of people, animals, plants, ideas, and even diseases between Europe and the Americans. It first started when European explorers reached the Americas. The Columbian Exchange was the movement of people, animals, plants, ideas, and even diseases between Europe and the Americans. It first started when European explorers reached the Americas.
Think about your everyday vanilla and chocolate ice cream cone. Vanilla and chocolate come from plants that are indigenous, or native, to Mexico. But before European exploration, there were no cows in the Americas to produce cream. There was no sugarcane to provide sugar. The Columbian Exchange changed the world forever—in good ways and bad.
Some historians believe that as many as nine out of ten Native Americans may have died from European diseases. These included influenza, smallpox, and measles. Why did so many natives die? Because unlike the Spanish, they had never developed an immunity, or resistance, to these diseases.
Almost as soon as their first colonists landed in the Americas, the Spanish were shipping gold, sliver, and jewels home. In the 1500s, Spain became the world’s richest and most powerful nation. It was all thanks to treasures they took from the Americas.
The Spanish colonies used the encomienda system. The Spanish ruler gave conquistadors and other colonists the “right” to force native people to work for them. According to Spanish law, colonists were supposed to protect and house their workers. They also had to teach them to be Catholic. Under the encomienda system, many Native Americans lived like enslaved people. They were forced to work very hard on farms and in mines. Those who rebelled could be killed.
“New World” crops such as corn, beans, squash, tomatoes, peppers, and tobacco became widely grown in Europe. Poor Europeans began to grow and eat “new world” potatoes as cheap substitutes for grain. “New World” peanuts became an important food in many parts of Africa and Asia. European farm animals, including cattle, pigs, chickens, and sheep, brought great changes to the Americas. Some Native American nations adapted their whole way of life to use horses—first brought by the conquistadors—for hunting, warfare, and transportation.
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse