Dbq Columbian Exchange Analysis

In the year 1493 Columbus discovered a route to the Americas and brought, crops, animals, new ideas, minerals, and diseases. This began a mix of the “old and new world” this gave both positive and negative impacts on the world. From evidence to be shared, I believe that the cost of the Colombian Exchange outweighed the good. The Colombian Exchange had many negative aspects and effects due to the Exchange. Evidence of this can be found in Document 4, where it displays the decrease of American lives between 1500 and 1600. The number of people living in the Americas decrease from 25 million to 1 million people (approximately). This supports my claim that the cost of the Colombian Exchange outweighed the good, because this showed that due to
the Exchange many (approximately 24 million) Americans died. Further evidence that the bad in the Colombian Exchange outweighed the good, can be found in Document 6 where it displays that there were 11.5 million slaves traded and said that, “The Europeans made more than 54,000 voyages to trade in human beings and sent at least ten to twelve million Africans to the Americas.” This is more evidence that the Colombian Exchange was more negative than positive. Because, the quote shows that due to the need for slaves (from/due to the exchange), more slaves were traded. This would not have happened as often if the route/exchange did not exist. However, the Colombian Exchange had some positive aspects, but, the positive aspects of the Exchange were outweighed by the negative aspects.
Positive aspects can be seen in document 1, where it states that “Easy to grow and store potatoes helped feed Europe's rapidly growing population.” Without using potatoes from the Americas many of the Europeans would have died. And the transport of potatoes wouldn't have happened without the Colombian Exchange. However, the Europeans would have been likely to adapt without the potatoes. Therefore, the lives lost overweight this problem. More evidence that the Colombian Exchange had some positive aspects come from Document 2, where it explains that the crop, cassava from the Colombian exchange helped feed parts of Africa, “In the leached soils of West and Central Africa, cassava became an indispensable crop. Today some 200 million Africans rely on it as their main source of nutrition.” This is a positive aspect because it allowed 600 million people to have a better source nutrients. Also this crop had such a major impact that it effected Africa in the long term. However many Africans were enslaved and discriminated against. And it is possible for these Africans to have survived as they had before, by innovating and controlling birth rates. In conclusion, there were many positive and negative aspects of the Colombian Exchange. However the bad outweighed the good, and the Exchange was not necessary for the peoples to survive. But, in my opinion I believe that what happened due to the Colombian Exchange was bad but, it is difficult to compare to the good. But, it was inevitable to happen, and the crops and ideas benefited the world in major
ways.