The Columbian Exchange

Two Worlds Meet

The introduction of beasts of burden to the Americas was a significant

development from the Columbian Exchange. The introduction of the horse

provided people in the Americas with a new source of labor and transportation.

• Voyages launched large-scale contact between Europe and Americas.

• Interaction with Native Americans led to sweeping cultural changes.

• Contact between the two groups led to the widespread exchange of

plants, animals, and disease—the Columbian Exchange.

• Plants, animals developed in very

different ways in hemispheres

• Europeans—no potatoes, corn,

sweet potatoes, turkeys

• People in Americas—no coffee,

oranges, rice, wheat, sheep, cattle

The Exchange of Goods

The Columbian Exchange

• Arrival of Europeans in Americas

changed all this

• Previously unknown foods taken

back to Europe

• Familiar foods brought to Americas

by colonists

Sharing Discoveries

New plants to the “Old World”

• Potato

• Corn

• Tomato

• Sweet Potato

• Cacao (Cocoa)

• Pineapples

• Pumpkins

• Tobacco

**The Europeans loved the Tobacco

Notice Italy did NOT have tomatoes

until the Columbian Exchange.

“Old World” Diseases

• Smallpox

• Measles

• Diphteria

• Chicken Pox

• Bubonic Plague

• Influenza

• Cholera

• Malaria

*Infecting many Native Americans

Small pox-trunk of

victim

Bubonic Plague Victim

What the “New World” brought to

Europe

• Syphilis

• Hepatitis

• Polio

• Tuberculosis

Lung of victim:

Tuberculosis

Polio-deformed

legs

• Wealth measured by amount of gold, silver possessed by nation

• Mercantilists believed there was fixed amount of wealth in world

• For one nation to become wealthier, more powerful—had to take wealth, power away from another nation

• Mercantilism led to intense competition between nations

Intense Competition

• Founding of colonies, new goods in Europe led to significant changes

• 1500s, Europeans developed new economic policy, mercantilism

• Nation’s strength depended on its wealth

• Wealthy nation had power for military and expanded influence

New Economic Policy Mercantilism

Controlling Sources • Nation that controlled own sources would not

need to import from competing nations

• Why important

– Country did not need to spend own money to obtain raw materials

– Foreign countries considered rivals, might become

active enemy, cut off supply of raw materials

• European nations worked to become more self-sufficient

• Nations began to establish colonies

Cultural Diffusion

• The spread of ideas, customs, and

technologies from one people to another.

• Cultural diffusion occurs through

migration, trade and welfare.

Long Term Causes:

Immediate Causes:

Immediate Effects:

Long Term Effects:

Columbian

Exchange

Find the Main Idea

What were two lasting effects of the

Columbian Exchange?

Answer(s): possible answers—changes in

cuisine, changes in crops grown around the world,

epidemics

Immediate Causes:

•Europeans arrive in the Americas

•Europeans bring new plants, animals

and diseases to the Americas

Immediate Effects:

•Spanish conquer Aztecs and Incas

•Native Americans die of European diseases

•Enslaved Africans are brought to the

Americas

•American foods are introduced to other parts

of the world

Long Term Effects:

•Spread of products all around the world

•Population growth in Europe, Asia, and

Africa

•Cultural diffusion

•Migration from Europe to the Americas

•Growth of Capitalism

Long Term Causes:

•God

•Gold

•Glory

Columbian

Exchange

According to the diagram, the diet of western Europeans changed

because of—

(a )new technologies in food packaging

(b) the development of new breeds of livestock

(c) the use of the first food preservatives

(d) the introduction of new foods from the Americas