The Columbian Exchange

Two Worlds Meet

1)  Old World: Refers to all lands in the Eastern Hemisphere (except Australia). The known world to Europeans in 1492.

     2) New World: Refers to the land in the

Western Hemisphere including North America, the Caribbean, and South America. (Land unknown to the Europeans before 1492.) 

3) Columbian Exchange: The exchange of food, animals, people and diseases between the Old and New Worlds

Christopher Columbus was born in Italy in 1451. His family was respectable, but not wealthy and therefore, could not afford a formal education for their children. Columbus’ education was very limited. He did learn to read and write, however. He also learned the trade of weaving from his father, but was always more interested in the sea.

Christopher Columbus

As a teen, Columbus spent a great deal of of time sailing. His hometown, Genoa, was on the west coast of Italy, and a major port city. Ships from Africa and Asia came and went frequently. Columbus had sailed to Africa and Asia as a young man aboard merchant vessels.

On his journeys as a young man, Columbus learned how to navigate by the stars, studied maps of the known world, and learned to make maps.

Columbus began to be convinced that he could find a better sea route from Europe to India and the Spice Islands (Indonesia).

Spice Islands

Europe

India

The sea route to India was established in 1488. It required sailing around the southern tip of Africa.

Columbus believed that by sailing west from Europe, he could reach the Spice Islands much faster. At the time, Columbus knew the world was round, but did not know how big the earth was, or that there was a huge land mass , the Americas, to the west.

Columbus set sail in August 3 of 1492 and reached land on October 12. Columbus believed he had reached the islands off the coast of China – part of the East Indies. He called the people he encountered Indians.

THE AMERICAS

Once Columbus returned to Europe, many expeditions soon followed. Although Columbus died believing he had reached the Indies, it was soon determined that the land he reached was a new world to the Europeans. The widespread exchange of plants, animals, diseases and people that took place between the “Old World” and the “New World” became known as the Columbian Exchange.

Horse Cow Pig Chicken Rats Bees

The introduction of beasts of burden to the Americas was a significant development from the Columbian Exchange. The introduction of the horse provided people in the Americas with a new source of labor and transportation.

Sugarcane Grapes Wheat Bananas Coconut Palms Coffee Dandelions

Potato Corn Tomato Sweet Potato Cacao (Cocoa) Pineapples Pumpkins

• Exchange of foods, animals had dramatic impact on later societies

• Over time crops native to Americas became staples in diets of Europeans

• Foods provided substantial nutrition, helped people live longer and European population grew

• Until contact with Americas, Europeans had never tried tomatoes

• Most Europeans thought tomatoes poisonous

• By late 1600s, tomatoes had begun to be included in Italian cookbooks

Effects of Columbian Exchange felt not only in Europe, Americas

China

Arrival of easy-to-grow, nutritious corn helped population grow tremendously

Also a main consumer of silver mined in Americas

Africa

Two native crops of Americas—corn, peanuts—still among most widely grown

Scholars estimate one-third of all food crops grown in world are of American origin

Smallpox Measles Diphteria Chicken Pox Bubonic Plague Influenza Cholera Malaria

The Introduction of New Diseases

• Native Americans had no natural resistance to European diseases

• Smallpox, measles, influenza, malaria killed millions

• Population of central Mexico may have decreased by more than 30 percent in the 10 years following first contact with Europeans

Devastating Impact

• Native American population continued to decline for centuries

• Inca Empire decreased from 13 million in 1492 to 2 million in 1600

• North American population fell from 2 million in 1492 to 500,000 in 1900—but disease not only factor in decrease of population

• Intermittent warfare, other violence also contributed

Syphillis Hepatitis Polio Tuberculosis

Peninsulares-Living in New World, born in Spain Creoles-Children of Peninsulares born in New

World Mulattos-Children of Europeans & African slaves Mestizos-children of Europeans & natives Encomienda-labor system under which natives

worked for Spanish, similar to mit’a

New people brought with them new ideas and cultures

Immediate Causes:

•Europeans arrive in the Americas

•Europeans bring new plants, animals and diseases to the Americas

Immediate Effects:

•Spanish conquer Aztecs and Incas

•Native Americans die of European diseases

•Enslaved Africans are brought to the Americas

•American foods are introduced to other parts of the world

Long Term Effects:

•Spread of products all around the world

•Population growth in Europe, Asia, and Africa

•Cultural diffusion

•Migration from Europe to the Americas

•Growth of Capitalism

Long Term Causes:

•God

•Gold

•Glory

Columbian

Exchange