Consequences+of+the+Columbian+Exchange

Consequences of the Columbian Exchange

 * When Europeans came to the Americas, they brought new diseases that killed off many Native American cultures and tribes.
 * Some heavily populated islands - such as Hispaniola (Haiti and the Dominican Republic) - lost their entire native populations to disease.
 * Some native species were killed off because of invasive species coming in from the Old World.
 * The list of diseases from the Old World to the New World is long - some of the major killers were smallpox, measles, whooping cough, chicken pox, bubonic plague, typhus, and malaria.
 * 80-95% of the Native American population was decimated within the first 100-150 years after 1492.
 *  Before the Columbian Exchange, there were  no bananas in Ecuador, no paprika in Hungary , no tomatoes in Italy , no coffee in Colombia , no rubber trees in Africa, no cattle in Texas, no donkeys in Mexico , no oranges in Florida, no chili peppers in Thailand and India , no cigarettes in France , no pineapples in Hawaii, and no chocolate in Switzerland.
 * Diseases were moved from Europe, Asia, and Africa to the United States
 * Foreign species were brought over from the Old World to the New World and took over native species in some areas, killing off native populations.
 * Made Phillip II of Spain the most powerful ruler in Europe. Under his rule, Spain reached the highest point of its influence and power, by directing explorations all around the world and settling the colonization of territories in all the known continents.
 * Mine workers got paid for how much they produced, and not how much time it took to produce. Most workers got $1 a day and worked 7 days a week.
 * Slaves were forced to work in mines.
 * The conquistadors tortured and killed many Aztecs to obtain more gold.
 * When the Americas opened, people had massive amounts of silver and gold for the first time. Before, it was always royal officials who had great wealth.
 * Europe eventually had so much gold that people decorated their houses with it.
 * Europe went from $200 million worth of gold ($2 per person) to $2 billion worth of gold.
 * All the gold and silver went to Spain, and from there went to Europe.
 * The number of ducats (gold or silver coins) went from 700,000 in circulation to 18 million. They could be used many times a year for various types of transactions.
 * American silver traveled around Europe and made a heavy impact on the economy of neighboring parts of the Old World.
 * The ottoman silver akce coin fell to half its former value before the end of 1584, and never regained its full value
 * The American silver made a world economy possible for the first time.
 * America had all the silver and gold Europe needed, and that destroyed African gold markets and the dependent trade networks.
 * New animals were introduced to the New World by the Columbian Exchange
 * New plants were introduced to the New World
 * Many people died from diseases, leaving crops behind

Columbus's voyages to the New World, a biological pipeline between America and Europe opened up that had been apart since before humans appeared on earth. The lands had drifted apart that had once been connected. Some species of plants and animals flourished in both areas, and some did not. There were many new animals and plants in the Americas that Europeans had never seen. And, Europeans brought plants and animals to the New World that America had never seen. This includes viruses and other biological organisms. The new animals brought to America upset the ecology of the area. The people living in the Americas did not have resistance to many of the "germs" brought by the Europeans.
 * Type of Organism || Old World to New World || New World to Old World ||
 * Animals || * camel
 * chicken
 * cow
 * donkey
 * goat
 * rabbit
 * horse
 * pig
 * sheep || * turkey
 * llama
 * alpaca ||
 * Domesticated Plants || * almond
 * apple
 * apricot
 * artichoke
 * asparagus
 * banana
 * cantaloupe
 * b roccoli
 * cabbage
 * brussels sprouts
 * cauliflower
 * carrot
 * cinnamon
 * coffee
 * citrus ( orange, lemon , etc.)
 * cucumber
 * garlic
 * hazelnut
 * hemp (including cannabis /marijuana)
 * kiwifruit
 * lettuce
 * nutmeg
 * oats
 * olive
 * onion
 * peach
 * pea
 * pear
 * pistachio
 * rhubarb
 * rice
 * soybean
 * sugarcane
 * tea
 * turnip
 * wheat (known in the Old World as "corn")
 * walnut (English)
 * watermelon
 * yam (sometimes misnamed "sweet potato") || *  amaranth (as grain)
 * common beans (pinto, lima, kidney, etc.)
 * bell pepper
 * blueberry
 * cashew
 * chili peppers
 * cranberries ( large cranberry, or bearberry species)
 * cocoa
 * cotton (long staple species)
 * guava (common)
 * jicama
 * maize (referred to in North America as "corn")
 * peanut
 * pecan
 * pineapple
 * potato
 * pumpkin
 * rubber
 * squash
 * strawberry (commercial varieties)
 * sugar-apple
 * sunflower
 * sweet potato
 * tobacco
 * tomato
 * vanilla
 * wild rice (Indian rice, not directly related to Asian rice )
 * zucchini (courgette) ||
 * Infectious Diseases || * AIDS
 * Bubonic Plague
 * Chicken Pox
 * Cholera
 * Common Cold
 * Influenza
 * Leprosy
 * Measles
 * Smallpox
 * Tuberculosis
 * Typhoid
 * Typhus || * Hepatitis
 * Malaria
 * Polio
 * Syphilis
 * Tuberculosis ||

In the late fifteenth century, European voyages back and forth across the Atlantic initiated the "Columbian Exchange" — that is, the exchange of foods, diseases, plants, animals, and peoples between the Americas and the "Old World." Its effects were no less than monumental in terms of economics, the environment, demography, and culture.

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