Preview

What Are The Effects Of The Columbian Exchange

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1456 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
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 …show more content…
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 …show more content…
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

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    During the period of slavery black men, women and children were subjected to slavery, discrimination, humilliation, beatings, inhumane treatment, abuse and starvation. In those moments when a black person was discriminated against and regarded as less, their only chance to survive in society was right through slavery. Despite the abuse, they were receiving some food and shelter. As at that time and during slavery in which there was a law where slaved people could not have education, slavery was their only way to survive as a person.…

    • 290 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Slavery began in America to aid in crop production, which at that time was just beginning. The first slaves were brought over to the American colony of Jamestown. These African slaves were brought over to replace servants because the slaves were cheaper, and there was a higher supply. Slavery was used over the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and they ultimately provided a foundation for our economy. The agrarian south had great conditions for farming, which caused the farming industry to go up. With inventions like the cotton gin, this economic boom solidified the importance of slavery to the south. The slave trade began, and while some slaves were treated better than others, many slaves were treated as an equivalent to the scum they scraped off the bottom of their owner's shoes.…

    • 434 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The “Columbian Exchange” was derived in 1492 by historian, Alfred Crosby. That phrase connects the relationship between animals, plants, and diseases between the time span of the Old World and the arrival of Columbus in the Caribbean in 1492 (Schultz, 2014). The Columbian Exchange is important for a number of reasons. It gives background of why Africans were sold into slavery, why Indian nations dismantled, and why European nations became one of the most financial stable nations in the world, and that’s just to name a few of key components to the Columbian Exchange.…

    • 225 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    One of the most important results of this accident is something that has come to be called the Columbian Exchange. It involved the transfer of food, plants, animals, and diseases across the continents. People in the Americas, Europe, and eventually Africa and Asia were greatly affected by this exchange. It brought the eastern and western hemispheres together in a way that transformed the world.…

    • 198 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Upon the arrival of the Europeans to North America in 1492, there began a massive transformation in the global ecosystem resulting from the exchange of flora, fauna, and disease between the Old World and the New. This interchange of native life-forms was called the Columbian Exchange by historian Alfred Crosby in his book of that title.…

    • 311 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Columbian Exchange was the exchange of agriculture, livestock, food, religious ideas, diseases, and evidently slaves between the New World and Old World after 1492. This exchange between the two worlds was brought on by the “discovery” of America by Christopher Columbus in 1492. This ecological change resulted in the introduction of new vegetation and animals to the New and Old Worlds as positive effects of this grand exchange, but the negative effects include the new, deadly diseases spread throughout the New World, killing millions of people.…

    • 486 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    When the diverse worlds of Europe, Africa, and the Americas collided after 1492, dramatic events would occur that would reshape the regions and the people in them. While there are many important events that occurred, mostly all of them can be organized into the category “Columbian Exchange”. The Columbian Exchange was a dramatically widespread exchange of animals, plants, culture, human populations (including slaves), communicable diseases, and ideas between the Old World and the New World. It is one of the most important events concerning culture in recorded history. Christopher Columbus’s first voyage to the New…

    • 450 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    From there, the Africans were allocated to work for landowners, which later proved quite successful for mass production of crops. This resulted in slavery becoming more widespread and it later reached as far as Louisiana…

    • 1271 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Columbian Exchange was the transfer of beliefs, crops, animals, people, and technologies from Europe to the Americas and Africa. This Exchange would have many consequences that still effect the world today. Economically Europe benefitted from the trade of gold and new crops such as potatoes, corn, and sugar cane from Central America. The new goods found in these countries effected Europe politically with the formation of colonies to facilitate the exports. The greatest consequence of the Exchange was the culture. The way of life for many Native American and African cultures changed with the introduction of new diseases, new animals, Christianity, and slavery. The Columbian Exchange created a global community, this event would change the…

    • 118 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Columbian Exchange

    • 276 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The Columbian Exchange was one of the most important events in history. After millions of years of total separation, the cultures of the west and east hemisphere differ greatly. Each side had its time to develop many different and unique plants and animals. The Columbian Exchange was the mixing of these two cultures, from both the “New World” and the “Old World”. Although these two cultures mixed, the “Old World” got the better end of the exchange by far. The Eastern Native Americans not only ended up almost being completely exterminated due to disease, but then they shared their techniques and practices with some Europeans.…

    • 276 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Columbian Exchange is a global trade where the people trade their goods between the New World and Old World. It started around the mid 15th century where Columbus “discovered” America. He started a colony on a island called "Bahamas", where the Native Americans lived. He turned the Natives into slaves and sold them to Spain. He went back to Spain and showed the royals his discoveries. After hearing the news of the voyager's discoveries, the European took interest and started a conquest of the New World. That was when the Columbian Exchange was born and many began trading like animals, plants, cultures, and technology.The system helped the food production increase and improve technologies. However, there were flaws such as Americans dying due to a sickness.…

    • 746 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    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.…

    • 596 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    he Columbian Exchange is best known for the exchange of goods between the new and old worlds across the Atlantic Ocean. This exchange impacted major changes among the Indians, Africans, and Europeans. After it was confirmed that a new world existed, explorers began making their way to the new world. The Old world refers to Asia, Africa, and Europe. The New World refers to mostly North and South America. Columbus first made a discovery in 1492, but he is not sure to be the first to visit the Americas. The Columbian Exchange had a major influence on the social and traditional makeup of both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. At first the discovery of the New World was not good news to the Europeans. The Europeans underestimated the size of the Atlantic Ocean, assuming it was very narrow. They discovered the Americas while trying to reach Asia. Asia was known to have a lot of riches and good natural resources. Once other people found out about the existence…

    • 690 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The Columbian Exchange is know as “one of the more spectacular and significant ecological events of the past millenium” (Crosby). It had a wide impact on the Americas, Asia, Europe, and Africa. The dominant start to the Columbian Exchange was way before it truly started, millions of years ago, when pangaea began to drift apart and tear between the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Africa. That caused major evolution. There were some animals, plants, foods, and substances that were only on one side of the world.…

    • 1158 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Columbian exchange was important to our society today, because without it there would not be America like we know it today. The native Americans, Spaniards, English, and the Africans play a great role in starting the Americas. The Native Americans have no nation state, each tribe has their own language, no organized trade routes. Spanish do not bring their families to settle with them, and why is this important? England created the original 13 colonies.…

    • 779 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays