Essay On The Columbian Exchange

The Columbian Exchange refers to a period of time where cultural and biological exchanges took place between the New World and the Old World. These exchanges were primarily composed of plants, animals, technology and not so good things such as diseases. Following Columbus’s discovery in 1492 the exchange began to take place and continued to play along throughout the years. When the soon to be settlers arrived in the New World, America, they began to notice a lot of plants they had never seen before in Europe. Plants new to the colonists involved beans, squash, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, avocado, sunflowers, and cacao to name a few, but most importantly it was potato and maize that was going to play a huge part in the exchanges. Along with
finding many new plants, plants familiar to the Europeans were brought to the New World to be grown such as the famous sugarcane. Sugarcane was used in the diet of almost every culture, which is why the Europeans brought some for their new plantation. Once produced at large, sugarcane was used in coffee, teach and chocolate. Nobody ever got tired of the sugar which led it to be one of the largest cash crops in history. Maize, American corn, was a major asset of the New World in the Columbian Exchange. Europe loved maize and began to take place as an alternative for wheat due to maize’s ability to grow quickly in places that wheat couldn’t. The last main important item is the potato. The potato began as being a cheap meal for sailors, but once it arrived in Europe, everything changed. It became very valuable since the weak soil in the Old World was perfect for the plantation of potatoes. Both non-domesticated and domesticated animals took part of passages during these exchanges. Before Columbus brought along the much loved horses from Europe, dogs, pigs, cattle, chickens, sheep, and goats from Europe on his second voyage in 1943, the natives in New America did most of their labor with their own two hands and no assistance from animals. So this formed a new form of labor, and much faster transportation. One animal that was not supposed to travel was the black rat. As harmless as it sounds, the black rat turned out to be very dangerous by bringing diseases. They carry diseases the plagues the colonists such as the bubonic plague, and typhus that ended up almost destroying a whole colony. Although many of the animals taking place in the Columbian Exchange were coming from Europe, the New World did transport animals such as llamas, turkeys, llamas, and guinea pigs even though they didn’t provide much to the Old World. Much technological advancement occurred in the late 15th and late 16th centuries due to the Columbian Exchange.
Although Europe had much more power compared to the Native Americans they ran across within the New World, they still were interested in the exchange of idea and cultures. As for the Native American’s eyes, the Europeans seemed to have everything, and as time when on the Native also benefited from the exchange by developing a written language so it would be easier to establish relationships between the two groups, new forms of farming, and weapon capability. The Native Americans developing a written language, with help of the Europeans, caused their intellectual level to grow. The native Cherokee Language then allowed ideas to be transferred. As for farming, the plow, allowed Europeans to cultivate larger areas of land creating a surplus of plantation for the Natives and the Europeans. The plow was pulled by the horses brought to the New World, helping cut the work time. Another thing completely new to the Natives was guns. Guns helped the Native go hunting for bigger animals, and the Natives were happy to be able to chase bigger herds and kill animals in less than half the time. Although these technological advancements didn’t cross the Atlantic Ocean, it shows how much people began to interact and share ideas with one
another. The Columbian Exchange was not always positive though. Diseases were being transmitted on both the New World and the Old World. Colonists, Europeans, and Native were all victims from foreign diseases. Old World included diseases such as smallpox, measles, malaria, yellow fever, influenza, and chicken pox. New World diseases included syphilis, polio, hepatitis, and encephalitis. The Indian population was the one majorly impacted. Since the Native had no prior exposure to diseases, and remained pretty much in isolation, their immune systems were not prepared to take and fight so many new diseases they were facing; eventually the Natives would just die. European diseases spread so rapidly since they were communicable by air and touch. Europe did suffer as well though. Syphilis became an epidemic in Europe, causing fatalities, and eventually being spread to Russia and Africa. Disease was something the New World and the Old World couldn’t do much abou