The Columbian Exchange was one of the first encounters in which continents from both sides of the Atlantic were exposed to each other. This experience brought about new trade, but it also wrought havoc on the Native population of the Americas. The Columbian Exchange is named so because the leader of the expedition during which this event occurred was an Italian named Christopher Columbus. Columbus’ men landed and immediately saw the Natives, according to Columbus’ journal. In his journal, he states that “The people kept coming down to the beach.… Some brought us water, some food; others, seeing that I did not wish to go ashore, swam out to us, and we understood them to be asking if we had come from Heaven.” (Christopher, 3) He made contact
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Through voyages to the Americas, the Old World gained new crops, such as potatoes, maize, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, cacao, peanuts, and most importantly, tobacco. They also gained new supplies of metals and a few new birds. Additionally, crops such as coffee and sugar from the Old World found a flourishing environment in parts of the New World. Flora wasn’t the only thing to make its way across the Atlantic; fauna also were exchanged. Before the arrival of the Europeans, the Native Americans had no large domestic animals. Horses were brought from Europe, along with animals we think of as commonplace today, like pigs, sheep, cattle, and many more. The New World contributed llamas, guinea pigs, and fowl, including the wild turkey, which was brought back to Europe. The turkey then adapted to its environment and became the turkey that modern-day people are familiar …show more content…
The Europeans and natives also exchanged diseases. The Native Americans’ isolation from the other side of the Atlantic made them highly susceptible to disease from the Asian and African continents that Europeans already built up an immunity to, so when the explorers made contact with the natives, they transferred diseases like small pox, malaria, yellow fever, bubonic plague and many more, which caused epidemics amongst the native peoples. Similarly, the natives had diseases that the other side of the Atlantic had never been exposed to. The most prominent disease that the sailors took back with them was syphilis, an STD, and it’s thought that they could have even brought back
Through voyages to the Americas, the Old World gained new crops, such as potatoes, maize, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, cacao, peanuts, and most importantly, tobacco. They also gained new supplies of metals and a few new birds. Additionally, crops such as coffee and sugar from the Old World found a flourishing environment in parts of the New World. Flora wasn’t the only thing to make its way across the Atlantic; fauna also were exchanged. Before the arrival of the Europeans, the Native Americans had no large domestic animals. Horses were brought from Europe, along with animals we think of as commonplace today, like pigs, sheep, cattle, and many more. The New World contributed llamas, guinea pigs, and fowl, including the wild turkey, which was brought back to Europe. The turkey then adapted to its environment and became the turkey that modern-day people are familiar …show more content…
The Europeans and natives also exchanged diseases. The Native Americans’ isolation from the other side of the Atlantic made them highly susceptible to disease from the Asian and African continents that Europeans already built up an immunity to, so when the explorers made contact with the natives, they transferred diseases like small pox, malaria, yellow fever, bubonic plague and many more, which caused epidemics amongst the native peoples. Similarly, the natives had diseases that the other side of the Atlantic had never been exposed to. The most prominent disease that the sailors took back with them was syphilis, an STD, and it’s thought that they could have even brought back