Columbian Exchange

Columbian Exchange

The consequences of contact between Old World (Europe) and the New World (America)

Went Both (or multiple) Directions

Biological entities were transported from Europe to America and back from America to Europe. Soon later, trade was connected to Africa and the Far East to the Americas and Europe.

Was Positive and Negative

Some of the items exchanged had tremendous benefits from the society that imported them. On the other hand, unintended consequences is a theme of globalization studies and early settlement history.

Was Intentional and Unintentional

Various microbes, plants, animals and people were taken from the Americas to Europe and to their other colonies and to other governments around the world.

Crops

Most of this part of the exchange was New World to Old World

Livestock

Mostly came from Old World to New World

People

People are biological entities, and invariably when people get together, there will be intermarriage or interracial relationships. Sometimes consensual, sometimes not.

Minerals

Not biological, but natural and very important, as currency and later for weaponry, machinery and the production of energy

Disease

The real catastrophe of the Columbian Exchange. Historians believe that the native population of central Mexico plummeted from 25 million at the time of Cortes’s arrival to 700,000, 100 years later.

Globalization

The exchange was not limited to Europe and North America