The Columbian Exchange
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The Columbian Exchange
description
The Columbian Exchange. Before 1492. Two very different ecosystems. Two sets of culturally diverse peoples. Two sets of flora and fauna. Two different disease pools. “ ...all the trees were as different from ours as day from night, and so the fruits, the herbage, the rocks, and all things. ” - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
Transcript of The Columbian Exchange
The Columbian Exchange
Before 1492Two very different ecosystems
Two different disease pools
Two sets of flora and fauna
Two sets of culturally
diverse peoples
“...all the trees were as different from ours as day from night, and so the fruits, the herbage, the rocks, and all things.”
-- Christopher Columbus
Two biological ecosystems interchanged to create a new world ecology.
The Exchange of Plants and AnimalsOriginally from the Western Hemisphere• Potato• Maize (corn)• Manioc (cassava, tapioca)• Sweet potato• Tomato• Cacao (chocolate)• Squash• Chili peppers • Pumpkin• Papaya• Guava• Tobacco• Avocado• Pineapple• Beans (most varieties, including
phaseolus vulgaris)• Peanuts• Certain cottons• Rubber• Turkeys
Originally from the Eastern Hemisphere
• Sugar• Olive oil• Various grains (Wheat, rice, rye,
barley, oats)• Grapes• Coffee• Horses• Cattle• Pigs• Goats• Sheep• Chickens• Various fruit trees (pear, apple,
peach, orange, lemon, pomegranate, fig, banana)
• Chick peas • Melons • Radishes• A wide variety of weeds and
grasses• Cauliflower• Cabbage
The Columbian Exchange
According to historian Alfred Crosby, the exchange of plants, animals and pathogens between the two hemispheres was biologically “the most spectacular thing that has ever happened to humans," and he coined the phenomenon the Columbian ExchangeColumbian Exchange.
An Exchange of Pathogens
The smallpox virus
A Demographic Collapse
In Mexico alone, the native population fell from In Mexico alone, the native population fell from roughly 30 million in 1519 to only 3 million in 1568.roughly 30 million in 1519 to only 3 million in 1568.
Aztecs afflicted with Smallpox Modern-day
victims of smallpox
The greatest impact of the Columbian Exchange was the exchange of different food
crops.Sweet Potatos
CassavaPotatosPotatos
An Increase in Food Supply Helped Populations to Rise
The eventual result of all the exchanging of different foodcrops was a dramatic increase in food supply, which in turncaused a rise in population. How and why did this happen?An entirely new food plant or set of food plants permits theutilization of soils and seasons that have previously goneunused, thus causing a real jump in food production and,therefore, population. The benefits went both ways.
The effects of the columbian exchange are still with us
today.
Bit by bit, we are becoming more homogenized,
and the world is becoming smaller.
Is the world growing more the same?
