The Columbian Exchange Summary

If you don't understand the Columbian Exchange, much of what you think you know about the history of the Americas may be wrong. Spanish soldiers did less to defeat the Incas and Aztecs than smallpox did. Divine Providence did less to bless the Puritan settlers of the Mayflower with good health and fortune than the Pilgrims' own immune systems did.

Following the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus in 1492, a great amount of trade between America and Europe began to take place known as the Columbian Exchange. These widespread exchanges ranged anywhere from livestock and plants all the way to the exchange of human slaves. The Columbian Exchange was vital in introducing new crops to both the eastern and western hemispheres, which also led to an increase in population in both hemispheres. Without the introduction of the Columbian Exchange the population of the world would most definitely be at a much smaller number. Perhaps the most vital part of the Columbian Exchange was the fact that it brought horses to America, horses were crucial in the colonization of the nation.

Contact between Native Americans and Europeans brought changes to European societies through three ways. First, with many new resources, Europeans were able to start the Columbian Exchange. The Columbian Exchange was basically the transfer of new resources and technology from the New World to the Old World and from the Old World to the New World. Second, since new types of crops were introduced to the Europeans, these new crops improved many of the European’s diets. For an example, before potatoes were introduced to the Old World, grains and wheat were the main parts of the European diets. But, after potatoes were introduced to the European countries, potatoes became the substitutions for grain and wheat because they were convenient to cultivate.

When the New World was discovered in 1492, European history would soon become shaped by what is

The Columbian Exchange is about exchanging goods from the “New World” to the “Old World” and vise versa. During the Columbian Exchange, Europeans brought food, animals, technology, and also diseases to the New World.

The Columbian Exchange is the period of time after Columbus discovery of the Americas in 1942 where there was an exchange of diseases, trade, crops, and migration between the New World and the Old World. First the Columbian Exchange caused a large majority of deaths by diseases for the Native American. The Europeans exposed the natives to sicknesses they had never been exposed to before and thus they had built no immunity or defense to them. Although several diseases were transferred from the old world to the new world the deadliest includes smallpox, measles, whooping cough, chicken pox, bubonic plague, typhus, and malaria (Nunn). Smallpox was often misdiagnosed and killed thousands of Indians. It is estimated that in 1492 there were between

In 1492, when the first of many Europeans arrived to the Americas, a new era had begun. The great leaders and trades between the old and new worlds have changed humanity for the better and worse. To understand how we should view the Columbian Exchange, it must be understood by its impact on the history of trade, change in civilization, and diseases.

Exchange on the Americas and Africa The Columbian Exchange between 1492 and 1750 has had a detrimental effect on both the Americas and Africa. The exchanges of plants, animals, and foods between the two regions have shared similarities through the mass transfer of populations and overexploitation of land.

- 3500 yrs ago Poverty Point was trading center for Miss and Ohio R valleys

The impact on the health of the people from the Old and New Worlds had their similarities and their differences. This impact on the health of the people was based on the event known as the Columbian Exchange. The Columbian Exchange occurred in 1492 when Christopher Columbus sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to find a new route to Asia. The event of the Columbian Exchange greatly changed the health of the peoples of the Old World and the New World.

The Columbian Exchange was a time when the Europeans and the Native North Americans exchanged many cultural and physical ideas and items from both the New World and Old. The Europeans gave the Natives a sense of civilization when they were given a written alphabet, farming capabilities, new warfare technology, and improved building techniques. This invasion of culture gave the Europeans room to spread their knowledge of Christianity and allow them to attempt conversion of the Natives. By teaching the Natives how to read and write a European language, the Europeans could now more easily communicate and trade with the people of the New World. Giving the Natives the use of a plow for their farming techniques, gave the Europeans access to endless

The Columbian Exchange is non-fiction book written by Alfred W. Crosby JR. It illustrates the important events that transpired when Columbus came to America in 1492. I initially chose this this book because I wanted to know more about Europe's effects on America, and how Columbus altered the flora and fauna of America for better and for worse. As I started to read further into the book I immediately was captivated by all the information that was hidden within the text.

The way of life significantly changed for the Native Americans after Europeans imposed the Columbian exchange into the New World. Along with the exchange of livestock and plants came unprecedented and unintentional deadly diseases that, in turn, practically wiped out the Native American population as a whole (textbook, 19). The decimation of the population occurred at alarming rates, which affected the trade of products between countries. The natives were not massacred by the popular belief of guns and knives, but 95% of the indigenous population was killed by exposure to European disease, like smallpox and the sheer epidemic of it (PBS). The Columbian Exchange brought on by the Europeans was to blame for the countless fatalities of Native Americans. The exchange was altered because of diseases that reshaped the Columbian Exchange as a whole, meaning infecting and spreading illness from livestock, crops growing without a means of processing or distribution, and an economical instability regarding wealth and lifestyle in other parts of the world. This began when the natives were incapable to work due to the crippling ailments that onset in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. For all of these reasons, the Columbian Exchange was made more difficult in exchanging goods from the New World to Europe, South America and Africa.

When building the New World, the labor that was used was due to racism and slavery. Wealthy white people would come to the Americas for opportunity while poor white indentured servants and enslaved African Americans built their colonies and worked in the fields. As time went on, people began to view certain races as more important and of a higher class than others. The New World became a heavily racist society filled with African Americans being captured and brought over to the America’s only to be worked to death. Even Indians were treated differently based off their origin and religion.

The Columbian Exchange is about exchanging goods from the “New World” to the “Old World” and vise versa. During the Columbian Exchange, Europeans brought food, animals, technology, and also diseases to the New World. The New World had many great qualities such as farming land for crops and large vast of land for animals to roam freely and also to reproduce.