The Columbian Exchange By Monique and Kaitlyn
Despite the Columbian Exchange allowing new networks of trading to exist for the first time from 1492, it actually had a negative impact on the world as it introduced human enslavement on a worldwide scale.
As you can see from the image above, Native Americans were treated horribly. This was mainly due to the belief that all black people were evil and worthless.
"The Columbian Exchange was the widespread transfer of animals, plants, culture, human populations, technology, and ideas between the American and Afro-Eurasian hemispheres in the 15th and 16th centuries" (Wikipedia, 2016) It transformed the lives of many people.
The following flow chart displays the plants and animals that were transported east from the Americas to Afro-Eurasia and the plants and animals that were transported west from Afro-Eurasia to the Americas.
The exchanging of these goods allowed countries to have access to a wider variety of food that they may not have been able to grow in their own countries.
Not only did the Columbian exchange allow goods to be traded across many countries, but it also resulted in the exchange of life threatening diseases. These included smallpox, influenza, diphtheria, cholera, malaria and several other diseases.
The interconnection of goods wouldn't of been possible without the occurrence of the Columbian Exchange. The foods, plants, ideas and materials that are well known in specific countries wouldn't exist if this did not happen. It created a variety of foods for different cultures and balanced diets for those who were not sustained from the limited crops they were only able to grow in their land. Although the two major worlds benefited from exchanging with each other, the Columbian Exchange caused both to exchange disease and illegal trading as mentioned throughout this document.
Although the exchanges of goods from the New World, for example tomatoes, lead to the development of traditional and cultural foods, supplies such as tobacco and caffeine caused a lot of destruction to the health of society and they still continue to do so today.
Because of how addictive caffeine can be, people continued to feel as if they needed more. This caused the trading and smuggling of caffeine illegally, in between countries.
Tobacco is still being used all over the world today and is leading to health problems such as lung cancer.
In the long-term, the Columbian Exchange has had several negative impacts on society and the world around us. The trading of plants and animals has caused more extinction of animal species in the last 400 years, than what would have happened naturally in a million. (Big History Project, 2016) Not only that, but the Columbian Exchange introduced the use of humans as slaves on a world wide scale, decreasing the population of native Americans and making the world more unequal.
However despite all the negative impacts, the Columbian Exchange still had some positive impacts on society. For example, it increased the population for Europe, allowed the interconnection of new foods, therefore giving each country a wider variety of food supplies which lead to the development of traditional and cultural foods.
