The environment shapes human societies, and as populations grow and change, these populations in turn shape their environments.

LEARNING OBJECTIVE

Explain the causes of the Columbian Exchange and its effects on the Eastern and Western Hemispheres.

HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS

KC 4.1.V - The new connections between the Eastern and Western Hemispheres resulted in the exchange of new plants, animals, and diseases, known as the Columbian Exchange.

KC 4.1.V.A - 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.

KC 4.1.V.B - 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.

KC 4.1.V.C - Afro-Eurasian fruit trees, grains, sugar, and domesticated animals were brought by Europeans to the Americas, while other foods were brought by African slaves.

KC 4.1.V.D - Populations in Afro-Eurasia benefitted nutritionally from the increased diversity of American food crops.

ILLUSTRATIVE EXAMPLES

Domesticated animals:

§Domestication of Horses

§ Domestication of Pigs

§Domestication of Cows

Foods brought by African slaves:

§ Food from Africa - Okra

§ Food from Africa - Rice

“Columbian exchange”—the global diffusion of plants, food crops, animals, human populations, and disease pathogens that took place after voyages of exploration by Christopher Columbus and other European mariners—had consequences much more profound than did earlier rounds of biological exchange.

Eastern Hemisphere

Introduction of crops to Europe

• potato, corn, tobacco, tomatoes, peppers, papayas, guavas, avocados, pineapples, and cacao

  • • maize and potatoes had contributed to a sharply increased number of calories in Eurasian diets

    • American bean varieties added protein

    • tomatoes and peppers provided vitamins and zesty flavors in lands from western Europe to China

• Peanuts and manioc flourished in tropical southeast Asian and west African soils that otherwise would not produce large yields or support large populations

• China, corn, peanuts, and especially sweet potatoes supplemented the traditional rice and wheat to sustain China’s modern population explosion

  • • By the early twentieth century,American food plants represented about 20 percent of total Chinese food production.

• Potatoes especially allowed Ireland’s and Germany's population to grow enormously

• overall, increased nutritional value of diets enriched by the global exchange of food crops and animals

Introduction of domesticated animals:

• turkey and other animals introduced, but not known for becoming a staple of Afro-Eurasian diet

Western Hemisphere

unintentional transfer of disease vectors

• mosquitoes and rats

spread of diseases

• smallpox, measles, and malaria were the worst

• also, measles, diphtheria, whooping cough, and influenza

• substantially reduced the indigenous populations

plantations (cash crops)

• use of coerced labor

• exported mostly to Europe and the Middle East

Introduction of crops to Americas

• fruit trees, grains, grape vines, sugar, coffee

Introduction of domesticated animals:

• Cows

• Pigs

• Horses

Foods brought by African slaves:

• Okra

• Rice

Activity: Provide Historical Context specific to the document.

Source: Historical chronicle of the Maya Kaqchikel people, composed and edited by different members of the Maya political elite in the Kaqchikel language, circa 1571–1604

“In the course of the fifth year [1519] the terrible pestilence began. First there was a cough, then blood. The number of deaths at this time was truly terrible.

In 1520 the pestilence spread. Truly, the number of deaths among the people was terrible and the people could not escape from the pestilence.

In 1521 my father, King Hunyg, died. The elders and the priests died alike from the pestilence. Half the people threw themselves into the ravines to escape it. The oldest son of the king died at the same time as well as his young brother. Thus, our people became poor.

In 1524 the Spanish arrived in our country and destroyed our people. The Spanish conquered all the towns.

In 1542 Dominican friars arrived from Mexico, and they taught us the Doctrine of Christ in our language. Until that time we had been ignorant of the word and the commandments of God.

In 1560 the pestilence that had formerly raged among the people returned again. It was truly terrible when this death was sent among us by the great God. Many families disappeared. All here were soon attacked, and I was also attacked with the disease.”

Activity: Provide Historical Context that explains the cause of the African Diaspora to the Americas.

Source: "A Splendid Exchange: How Trade Shaped the World" by William Bernstein

"[A]s early as 1580, slaves constituted well over half of voyagers to the New World; by 1700, three-quarters; and by 1820, 90 percent. Truly, the settlement of the Americas would not have been possible without black slaves, who constituted fully 77 percent of those who crossed the Atlantic before 1820. Only after the mid-nineteenth century, when the institution was finally outlawed, did the majority of immigrants have white skin.”

Identify ONE way in which the author applies an example of the Columbian Exchange to demonstrate a change.

SOURCE: Pekka Hämäläinen, historian, The Comanche Empire, 2008

“Nomads, the historical record shows, can evade, resist, stop, sustain, exploit, destabilize, and destroy empires. They can also build enduring empires of their own, but only if they modify the essence of their being and become less nomadic. Their institutions, like their very way of life, tend to be fluid and short-lived, and they lack such classic elements of empires as state structure and surplus-generating agriculture. Indeed, to preserve their might, nearly all nomadic empires developed over time more fixed institutions of governance and production that required at least seasonal sedentarism. So too did the Comanches, although this may seem implausible at first sight. . . .

At the dawn of the eighteenth century, the Comanche were a small tribe of hunter-gatherers living in the rugged canyonlands on the far northern frontier of the Spanish kingdom of New Mexico. . . . It was here, at the advancing edge of the world’s largest empire, that the Comanches launched an explosive expansion. They purchased and plundered horses from New Mexico, reinvented themselves as mounted fighters, and re-envisioned their place in the world. . . . as a hegemonic people who grew increasingly powerful and prosperous at the expense of the surrounding societies, Indian and Euro-American alike. Gradually, a momentous shift took shape. In the Southwest, European imperialism not only stalled in the face of indigenous resistance; it was eclipsed by indigenous imperialism.”

Key Takeaways

A.) Afro-Euroasia had been interconnected for thousands of years before 1492

B.) The Americas had largely (few exceptions) been isolated from the Afro-Euroasian trade network

• The American Web/Turquoise Road had connected the Americas via trade before 1492

C.) Interaction between the two hemispheres would have a profound effect on both

D.) The Columbian exchange of plants and animals fueled a surge in world population

• In 1500 world population stood at about 425 million

• 1600 - world population increased more than 25 percent to 545 million

• 1700 - world population was about 610 million

• 1750 - world population stood at 720 million

• 1800 - world population was about 900 million having grown by almost 50 percent during the previous century.

• Much of the rise was due to the increased nutritional value of diets enriched by the global exchange of food crops and animals.

E.) transoceanic migration, whether voluntary or forced

• from 1500 to 1800, the largest contingent of migrants consisted of enslaved Africans transported involuntarily to South American, North American, and Caribbean destinations

• A smaller but still sizable migration involved Europeans who traveled to the Americas and settled in lands depopulated by infectious and contagious diseases

• During the nineteenth century, European peoples traveled in massive numbers mostly to the western hemisphere but also to south Africa, Australia, and Pacific islands where diseases had diminished indigenous populations

• Asian peoples migrated to tropical and subtropical destinations throughout much of the world