Unit 4.3 - Columbian Exchange

key terms/events and significance

Columbian Exchange

• Definition: 

  • Exchange of foods, animals, & disease between the Americas & Afro-Eurasia

  • Began with the arrival of Columbus

• Significance:

  • New ways of life developed out of the interaction of Europeans, Native Americans, and Africans

  • Linked all three together

  • Changes in population, biodiversity, & global economy

Smallpox

• Definition: 

  • Pathogens spread through the respiratory system

  • Conquistadores (Francisco Pizarro & Hernán Cortés) brought it to America with them

• Significance:

  • Indigenous people had no exposure → no immunity to germs & diseases of Europeans

  • Massive decline of native populations (up to 90% in some areas)

  • Led to Europeans seizing more resources and land

Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade

• Definition:

  • Africans were captured & sold through the transatlantic slave trade.

• Significance:

  • Provided a massive labor supply for cash crops in the Americas

  • Enslaved people died from poor working conditions, poor nutrition, lack of adequate shelter, tropical heat & its associated disease

Cash Crops

• Definition:

  • Sugar & tobacco.

• Significance:

  • Grown for sale rather than subsistence / eclipsed silver as Europe’s main money maker

African Diaspora

• Definition:

  • Dispersion of Africans out of Africa

  • Myriad African cultural groups → loss of their languages after a generation because they couldn’t communicate with each other

  • Music

  • Foods & their preparation

• Significance:

  • Enslaved Africans retained some aspects of their culture despite being captured

  • Created Creole (Europeans’ language + West African language & grammar)

  • Means of survival & communication

  • African culture has had a profound & lasting impact on America