Columbian Exchange(1400s – today)

The Flat Earth Theory (c. 1492 CE)

Atlas Statue (c. 100 CE)

• After 1415, European explorers made voyages across the seas towards the east and west.

• By 1519, Spanish ships had circumnavigated the globe. Others set out in search of wealth and adventure.

Vasco da Gama 1498

Ferdinand Magellan 1519

Christopher Columbus 1492

European Exploration

The Exchange

• Columbus inadvertently accelerated trade around the world• Columbian Exchange = The exchange of plants, animals, and

pathogens between the Old World and New World which occurred after Christopher Columbus’ 1492 voyage.

New crops like potatoes spread and improved nutrition worldwide.

Luxury products like chocolate meant new cultural habits for those with money to spend.

New World Old World

Old World New WorldGlobal cash crops like sugar were grown on large plantations with slave labor.

Caribbean sugar plantation 1600s

Animals introduced to the Americas, such as the horse, changed indigenous groups’ ways of life.

Plains woman riding a horse to hunt buffalo in the 1800s

The Great Dying

• Great Dying = the collapse of Native American populations from diseases like smallpox and influenza carried by European conquerors.

• Native Americans had no immunity to these diseases.

• By some accounts, the population of the Americas fell from about 22 million in 1500 to less than 1 million in 1640

Examples of Trade

Compass

• Navigational instrument using the four cardinal points

Caravel

• Small Portuguese ship used off the West African coast

Carrack

• Large Portuguese ship used for ocean travel

Galleon

• Large Spanish ship with multiple decks used for ocean travel

Bullion

• Bars of gold, silver, and other precious metals in bulk form