What Are The Effects Of The Columbian Exchange

The exchange between living organisms from the west to the non western world started with Christopher Columbus. In 1492 he set sail in order to reach China or Japan through the Atlantic Ocean. However, he landed in North America and created a connection between the Americas and Afroeurasia. “Historians conventionally call this period the early modern era. We use this term to signal the magnitude of changes taking place between 1450 and 1750” (Dunn 452). The Columbian Exchange is responsible for a majority of the living organisms which were transferred through the transoceanic passages. The exchange opened the world to a global economy for the first time. The arrival of Europeans to America brought diseases never seen before to the native
people. Smallpox and the measles whipped out much of the native population in America. The only real disease from the New World that had an effect on the Old World was venereal syphilis. Microbes weren’t the only thing being exchanged at that time. Tobacco and other spices revolutionized the global economy. Spices and herbs such as tobacco were a “craze” in the old world which never seemed to slow down. Animals were also exchanged between 1450 and 1776 which changed the world’s economy for the better. Animals such as pigs, cows and horses, which were sent to the Americas, were revolutionary. Pigs and cows refitted the food supply. Oxen and horses changed the agriculture industry as the American now had more powerful means of turning over land using the animals. All this agriculture revolution in Americas allowed them to produce much more food at a faster rate. Crops such corn was sent to places never seen before such as India. The spread of new crops across the world caused a great increase in the world’s population. Corn and potatoes can grow in soil which had little nutrients which fixed and food shortage problems any country had. Many of the corn that grew was used as feed for farm animals which in turn increased the amount of beef, pork and poultry around the world. Lastly there was the transportation of people. Africans were taken against their will to the Americas as slaves. There was also a large transfer of people from Europe moving to the new world in search of land and a new opportunity. These exchanges of people lead to the repopulation of the Americas. The spread of living organisms in the Pacific came about with the expansion of empires. Empires expanded into new and other people’s territory. With this came new trade routes and the expansion of people across the pacific. The Safavid Empire of Persia invested in new trail and road systems which connected people to new trade routes. Trade routes along rivers also became more to use as they were used for trading. The Songhay Empire had population growth and expansion which lead to the creation of new centralized states. These states were made possible by the development of trade networks in Africa. The Trans-Saharan trade was created and connected southern Africa to the Mediterranean Sea. This was also the time where guns and gun powder came to be one of the largest traded goods. The expansion of one’s empire highly relied on the size of one’s armory. We can see the rise and fall of empires and along with it the expansion of people across Africa and Asia. New trade routes were created in order to expand the trade of guns. Silver also became one of the highest traded items as it was used as a universal currency. Culturally there were new religions spreading. New communication as well as trade routes allowed for missionaries, traders and students to spread their religion to different parts of the world. This lead to the spread of Islam, Christianity and Buddhism across the world.

With the expansion into the new world and growing Empires, man-power was needed in order to produce goods such as crops.
With such an influx of Europeans to the Americas, land was taken over but there were not enough people to man the farms which were to grow the crops. The needed workforce had millions of African slaves brought to the Americas. However, the brutal journey to the new world killed many on the way due to the horrendous conditions aboard the boat. A majority of slaves were brought to the Caribbean islands or Brazil. Africans were sold or traded as slaves by their own people for profit or personal gain. The Africans would capture other Africans and trade them to the Europeans. Slaves were seen as personal property. Once in America the slaves were sold and bought to slave owners. Most slaves worked as agricultural laborers on farm lands. These farms suddenly had the demand for crops such as sugar and now the farm owners (plantation owners) had the labor to harvest the land. Slaves often would reproduce and the slave owners of the parents had the right to do with the new baby as they pleased. They could either sell the kid to somebody else or use the kid as a labored slave. This powerful notion shows that people believes slavery was Hereditary and that one could be born into slavery based on their
parents. Economically slaves boosted the global economy by having more goods and services available to meet the high demands. Slaves were used as cattle and considered moveable property. Slaves were bought and sold all around the world in order to supply the ever growing population and demand for food. Socially the slave process is devastating to the African culture. Those taken are alienated and dishonored. They are removed from their culture, land and society and brought to a new place which they must make their home. Slave owners dehumanize the slaves and treat them as animals and personal property. One reason that people accepted slavery as socially acceptable is the fact that slavery has been seen throughout history with the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans. The Bible was also used to justify slavery and specifically Africans because Noah says “Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren” (Genesis 9:25). Many believed that human sin made it alright to turn someone into a slave. Commercialized plantation relied on slaves in order to continue to bring huge profit margins.
Slaves were the cheapest form of labor a company owner could ask for which was one of the benefits of slavery. One of the drawbacks of slavery is that it brought brutality to society. The cruelty went from rapping the slaves to whipping them in order to dehumanize them.
The Spanish ruled part of Latin America and used the goods and crops sold out of there by implementing high taxes. These taxes were the revenue for the Spanish Crown to do with what they pleased. There was also the Patriarchy. This meant that women had little to any rights such as voting or owning land. They were essentially owned by their husbands. The Catholic Church also had much power over the Latin world. With new people coming to the new world, it brought with them a more diverse pool to breed from. This lead to large amounts of cultural blending between Peninsulares, African Slaves, Native Americans and the Creoles. The mixture of all these different peoples caused levels of social hierarchy. It also lead to much cultural diversity from new food to
music. As the Revolution of Europe and British American colonies advanced, they would ultimately lead to the liberation of Latin America from European ruling. Here is how it all happened:

It all started when Joseph Bonaparte, Napoleon Boneparte’s brother was given rule over Spain. The Boneparte’s wanted to implement new French rulings into Mexico which upsed those living there. This lead to peasant uprising and revolts in which worked for a while. It wasn’t until the Spanish king changed the constitution and gave less power to the Catholic Church. Later Mexico would become an independent republic from Europe.

Brazil was ruled by Portugal. The Creoles wanted to maintain their privilege while also their independence. One Napoleon took over Portugal the entire royal family went to Brazil. Once Napoleon was defeated by the Portuguese, King Joao returned to Portugal leaving his son Prince Dom Pedro ruler of Brazil. Prince Pedro then declared himself King of Brazil as a separate entity from Portugal. However the social hierarchy remained in tack with the whites on top and slaves on the bottom. Simon Bolivar conviced armies to rebel against spain. With this he started taking over major cities in the northern part of South America. After bettling with the Spanish, Simon Bolivar and his followers defeated the Spanish and declared themselves independent from the Spanish throne.