APUSH - Topic 1.4 Columbian Exchange, Spanish Exploration, and Conquest

Explain causes of the Columbian Exchange and its effect on Europe and the Americas during the period after 1492

Who was Christopher Columbus?

• Spanish explorer

• supported by Spanish monarchs → given three ships and power over new land claimed for Spain

• disappointed by what he found in Americas (little gold, few spices, no path to Asia)

What was the Columbian Exchange?

• exchange of cultures and materials across Atlantic

• Europeans

  • got new plants and foods

  • corn, potatoes, tobacco

• Native Americans

  • domesticated, technologies, plants, disease

  • sugar cane, horses, the wheel, guns

What were the effects of the Columbian Exchange?

• Europeans

  • diet became more diverse and well balanced (people became healthier + population growth)

• Native Americans

  • smallpox and measles caused extreme decline in population

  • 90%+ Natives died

Why did capitalism grow in Europe?

• capitalism (control of money, machinery) replaced feudalism (control of land)

• power shifted from landowners to wealthy merchants

• people wanted to have access to riches of Americas, Africa, Asia

  • one good trip could make a person very rich

• development of joint-stock companies

  • voyage financed by many investors → failure wouldn’t hurt people too much