The Columbian Exchange
By: Aarya Rao
College Board Theme:
This objective about the Columbian Exchange, falls under college board theme #4, which is Creation, Expansion & Interaction of Economic System : Agriculture, Pastoralism, Trade & Commerce, Labor Systems, Industrialism, Capitalism, Socialism. It falls under this college board theme because in this chapter it talks about the trades that took place between Europe and the New World, such as the trades of food, cattle and diseases.
Summary:
The Columbian Exchange was a biological exchange that took place between the Eastern and Western hemisphere. In this exchange many different items were traded, such as plants, animals, crops, livestock, diseases, slaves and humans. Diseases that spread to the Americas, such as smallpox and influenza, were extremely harmful to the population of the New World and caused a total of 100 million deaths. However, many new crops and foods were exchanged which restored the population that had been lost. These new foods that were exchanged were rich in vitamins and minerals, they had new flavors, and they became embedded in the lives of those who they traded with. Many residents from the Americas left to settle in Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia, and many residents from the eastern hemisphere left to settle in the Americas. Overall, the Columbian exchanged ended up resulting in a huge population growth, even though many lives were lost to diseases. The Columbian exchange is one of the biggest exchanges to take place in history, and it has had a huge effect on the world that can still be seen today.
Comparison:
The Columbian exchange is similar to the Silk roads because the Columbian exchange was a trading system that connected the Americas, the Caribbean, Europe, Africa and Asia and the Silk Roads were also a trading system that connected China, India, Byzantine and many other empires. A difference between these two trading systems, however, is that the Columbian exchange took place over seas and the Silk road was mainly land routes.
Biological Exchanges
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Epidemic Diseases and Population Losses
- Infectious diseases caused a severe drop in population to people of the Americas and Pacific Islands.
- Smallpox was one of the worst diseases that was transmitted to the New World, but there were other diseases such as Measles, Diphtheria, Whooping cough and influenza.
- These diseases were much more popular in the Eastern Hemisphere, so they were mostly endemic as people had developed a resistance to it, however they took a serious toll on the Americas, wiping out huge populations.
- Beginning in 1519, Smallpox wiped out a huge portion of the Aztec empire, and caused a drop of 20 million people in Mexico's population.
- The Spanish people then imposed their rule on Mexico, and the native traditions all began to disappear.
- By 1530, the diseases spread all the way up to the Great Lakes in the north and all the way down to Argentina in the south.
- The same effect occurred in the Pacific Islands, wiping out a huge amount of the population.
- In total, the diseases spread from the Columbian Exchange wiped out about 100 million people.
Food Crops and Animals
- Overall, the Columbian Exchange increased the population, due to all the new crops and foods that were being brought over from both sides.
- From Europe, wheat, vines, horses, cattle, pigs, sheep, goats and chickens were brought to the Americas.
- Wheat was good for the climate of America in the North and the humid and dry lands of Argentina.
- Cattle was a good source of meat and it transformed grass into milk, which added new vitamins and nutrients to the diet of many natives in the Americas.
American Crops
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Population Growth
- The Columbian Exchange of plants and animals caused a huge growth of population.
- In 1500, the Eurasian population was about 425 million, and after the introduction of new crops and animals, the population raised to 545 million, which was 25%. Then by 1700 it was 610 million, by 1750 it was 720 million, and by 1800 it had raised to 900 million.
- This rise in population was mostly due to the increase in nutritional foods and enriched diets that came from new foods.
Migration
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VIDEOS
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