What Is The Columbian Exchange
COLUMBIAN EXCHANGE RESEARCH PAPER
The Columbian Exchange was the term for the exchange of plants, weapons, animals, and diseases between the Old World and the New World. Their meeting with the Native Americans brought greater changes. The Europeans greatly benefitted from it, while the Native Americans were devastated. The Old World traded llamas and the New World brought horses, pigs, cattle, and sheep, they influenced new uses of land. The Europeans gave sugar, rice, wheat, coffee, bananas and grape and received crops such as corn, tomatoes, potatoes, tobacco, cacao, beans and cotton from the Americans. This ensured that they’d never run out of food due to the increase in agricultural sources. The Columbian Exchange also benefitted people economically. Activities such as Texas cattle ranching, Brazilian coffee growing was not possible without the Columbian Exchange. Traditional cuisines also changed …show more content…
because of the Columbian Exchange. Horses, wheat and more were extremely beneficial to the Native Americas. The trade opened new opportunities for the expansion of colonization and slavery. The European developed a new economic policy called mercantilism. Wealthy nation had power for military and expanded influence. The Columbian Exchange impact on society led to many changes.
Colonization started to change and towns cities grew as business activity increased. New class of wealthier merchants emerged and began to wield more power in their towns. The rural life did not change much, no one felt the impact of colonization and continued as it did. Many years passed before they started to grow the food that they received from the Americans.
The diseases from Europe were mostly spread by air or by physical touch. Smallpox, measles, chicken pox, bubonic plague, scarlet fever and the flu were the most common diseases exchanged. It was considered punishment for a sin to catch a disease, but the Native Americans didn’t have any natural resistance to the diseases so their population decreased from 2 million to 500,000 while the Inca Empire went from 13 million people to 2 million. Europeans needed to labor to cultivate new crops but there weren’t many natives left so they set of to Africa and began importing slaves to America.
Mercantilism was based off of basic
principles:
-A nation’s strength depends on its wealth as measured in gold and silver
-Only a fixed amount of wealth exists in the world, and the nations have to compete for their share of the wealth.
-a favorable balance of trade is an important step in gaining wealth
-Countries should seek to limit imports of maximize exports
-A country should have its own source for raw materials and precious metals to avoid dependence on others.
-Colonies exist only as a way for the mother country to make profit
-A country’s colonies should not trade with other countries.
The Columbian Exchange was an improvement to the world. It gave England and France very Imperialist and it gave us America. The England and France had land in America, giving them money that led to power. The Columbian Exchange also impacted China and Africa. China got arrival of easy to grow, nutritious corn which led to rapid population growth. Africa still grows corn and peanuts from American today and is considered their largest known crops. It also helped raise prices and money supply; investor took the chance of investing in overseas trade because of inflation. The need for goods increased as the population grew, making the demand for prices higher. America also shipped gold and silver to Europe to be made into new coins.
COLUMBIAN
EXCHANGE
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
"Digital History." Digital History. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 May 2012.
The Columbian Exchange was the term for the exchange of plants, weapons, animals, and diseases between the Old World and the New World. Their meeting with the Native Americans brought greater changes. The Europeans greatly benefitted from it, while the Native Americans were devastated. The Old World traded llamas and the New World brought horses, pigs, cattle, and sheep, they influenced new uses of land. The Europeans gave sugar, rice, wheat, coffee, bananas and grape and received crops such as corn, tomatoes, potatoes, tobacco, cacao, beans and cotton from the Americans. This ensured that they’d never run out of food due to the increase in agricultural sources. The Columbian Exchange also benefitted people economically. Activities such as Texas cattle ranching, Brazilian coffee growing was not possible without the Columbian Exchange. Traditional cuisines also changed …show more content…
because of the Columbian Exchange. Horses, wheat and more were extremely beneficial to the Native Americas. The trade opened new opportunities for the expansion of colonization and slavery. The European developed a new economic policy called mercantilism. Wealthy nation had power for military and expanded influence. The Columbian Exchange impact on society led to many changes.
Colonization started to change and towns cities grew as business activity increased. New class of wealthier merchants emerged and began to wield more power in their towns. The rural life did not change much, no one felt the impact of colonization and continued as it did. Many years passed before they started to grow the food that they received from the Americans.
The diseases from Europe were mostly spread by air or by physical touch. Smallpox, measles, chicken pox, bubonic plague, scarlet fever and the flu were the most common diseases exchanged. It was considered punishment for a sin to catch a disease, but the Native Americans didn’t have any natural resistance to the diseases so their population decreased from 2 million to 500,000 while the Inca Empire went from 13 million people to 2 million. Europeans needed to labor to cultivate new crops but there weren’t many natives left so they set of to Africa and began importing slaves to America.
Mercantilism was based off of basic
principles:
-A nation’s strength depends on its wealth as measured in gold and silver
-Only a fixed amount of wealth exists in the world, and the nations have to compete for their share of the wealth.
-a favorable balance of trade is an important step in gaining wealth
-Countries should seek to limit imports of maximize exports
-A country should have its own source for raw materials and precious metals to avoid dependence on others.
-Colonies exist only as a way for the mother country to make profit
-A country’s colonies should not trade with other countries.
The Columbian Exchange was an improvement to the world. It gave England and France very Imperialist and it gave us America. The England and France had land in America, giving them money that led to power. The Columbian Exchange also impacted China and Africa. China got arrival of easy to grow, nutritious corn which led to rapid population growth. Africa still grows corn and peanuts from American today and is considered their largest known crops. It also helped raise prices and money supply; investor took the chance of investing in overseas trade because of inflation. The need for goods increased as the population grew, making the demand for prices higher. America also shipped gold and silver to Europe to be made into new coins.
COLUMBIAN
EXCHANGE
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
"Digital History." Digital History. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 May 2012.