4.3 - The Columbian Exchange

• Colombian Exchange


  The transfer of new diseases, food plants, people, and animals between the Eastern and Western Hemisphere
• The Colombian Exchange was the occasion for a massive change in world history
• Contact was made between the New World and the Old World, which caused the Colombian Exchange to begin
• People in Afro-Eurasia had developed immunities to diseases, but indigenous peoples in the Americas had not
• Diseases introduced


  • Malaria
  • Measles
  • Smallpox
• Smallpox killed up to 90% of the population in some areas of the Americas
• The introduction of these diseases made the eventual European takeover of the Americas much more achievable
• Foods brought to the Americas


  • Wheat
  • Grapes
  • Olives
  • Bananas
  • Sugar
• Foods brought from the Americas


  • Maize
  • Potatoes
  • Manioc
• These new foods diversified diets and led to population growth in Europe
• Some new world crops were introduced to Africa and Asia
• Europeans set up plantations in the Americas to grow cash crops for export
• Domesticated animals brought by Europeans, like pigs, sheep, and cattle, multiplied rapidly and had environmental consequences
• The horse introduced by Europeans fundamentally changed the society of several indigenous peoples in North America by allowing them to more effectively hunt buffalo