Great Biological Exchange
The Collision of Cultures: Great Biological Exchange The Great Biological Exchange was when the Europeans first came into contact with the Native Americans and exchanged many different things with each other. It was a diffusion of the two groups’ biological systems. Neither group has never seen some of the plants, animals, and devices that were exchanged between them. The Native Americans introduced the Europeans to plants such as peanuts, peppers, cacao, and chicle. On the other hand, the Europeans presented plants from their country that included rice, wheat, barley, and dandelions. This great exchange between the Europeans and Native Americans had a great effect on the way people lived. In my opinion, the exchange was helpful to both groups of people but it also had setbacks that affected people. Two negativities came out of this exchange. One was the transmission of diseases from the Europeans to the Native Americans. The transmission of the diseases had the greatest impact of all on the Native Americans. The Europeans had no resistance to diseases such as measles, mumps, smallpox, typhus, and chicken pox therefore millions became sick and died. About 90% of the Native American population was wiped out from the diseases because their bodies had never been exposed to such diseases and so their immune systems could not fight the diseases. The second negativity that I believe came out of this exchange was the importation of slaves. Because so many of the Native Americans died, it left behind a large shortage of workers. In addition to the many deaths, the Europeans needed people to work on their plantations that consisted of plants that was introduced to them by the Native Americans. Due to the lack of plantation workers, the Europeans turned to the African slaves as a solution. I do not believe that this was the best solution that the Europeans chose because it showed how lazy and selfish they were. They did not want to take care of their plantations on