The Columbian Exchange was a dramatically widespread exchange
The Columbian Exchange was a dramatically widespread exchange of the animals, plants, culture and human populations (including slaves), communicable disease, and ideas between the Eastern and Western hemispheres (Old World to New World). It was one of the most significant events concerning ecology, agriculture, and culture in all of American history.
Christopher Columbus’ first voyage to the Americas in 1492 launched the era of large-scale contact between the Old and the New Worlds that resulted in this ecological revolution, hence the name “Columbian” Exchange. The term was coined by Alfred W. Crosby, a historian, professor and author, in his 1972 book The Columbian Exchange.
From the Americas to Europe Avocados Cacao (for chocolate) Marigolds Pineapples Quinine Beans (kidney, navy, lima) Chili peppers Papayas Poinsettias Rubber Sweet potatoes Tobacco Vanilla beans Zinnias Bell peppers Corn Peanuts Potatoes Squashes Tomatoes Black-eyed Susans From Europe to the Americas Bananas Barley Cabbages Carnations Chickens Coffee Cows Crabgrass Daffodils Daisies Dandelions Horses Lemons Lettuce Lilacs Olives Oranges Peaches Pears Pigs Rice Sheep Sugarcane Tulips Turnips Wheat Cotton Petunias Pumpkins Sunflowers Turkeys
“Hit by wave after wave of multiple diseases to which they had utterly no resistance, they [the indigenous peoples] died by the millions. Disease spread from the paths of explorers and the sites of colonization like a stain from a drop of ink on a paper towel. In fact, in North America, disease spread faster than European colonization. When Hernando de Soto explored the Mississippi Valley in the early 1500 s he found large, thriving cities connected by networks of trade. By the time Rene-Robert de La Salle followed de Soto’s footsteps in the 1680 s, those cities had evaporated. “ Excerpt – Disease and Catastrophe
The Columbian Exchange greatly affected almost every society on Earth. New diseases introduced by Europeans, to which the indigenous peoples of the Americas had no immunity, depopulated many cultures. Data for the pre-Columbian population in the Americas is uncertain, but estimates of its disease-induced population losses between 1500 and 1650 range between 50 and 90 percent
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