Gen Ed 111, Section 2

Quiz 1

Columbian Exchange

The Columbian exchange is a term historians use to refer to what the Indians got from the
Spanish that came to the Americas. The Indians received various goods from the Spanish including
wheat, grapevines, and sugar. But the most important and profound measure that the Indians
received from the Spaniards was sickness, from almost the moment the Spanish arrived they
unknowingly released microbes on the Indians that would over time lead to their demise. First the
Indian people were hit with the smallpox epidemic then the measles and finally pneumonic plague
and influenza, wave among wave of infectious pathogens wiped out up to 90 percent of the Indian
population, in 1519 the was no more than five to ten percent of the island’s population left alive.

The consequences that the Colombian exchange had on the regions of the Atlantic world and
beyond were that various types of diseases, different species of animals, and numerous plants were
transported from one continent to the other and vice versa. Types of animals and goods unknown to
Europe were turkeys’ tobacco. Now a day’s many types of food that can be found in regions like
Europe, West-Africa, and Latin America for example potatoes, tomatoes, peanuts, sugarcane, and
coffee came from the Columbian exchange and was unknown to Europe, West-Africa, and Latin
America before the 16th century. Another element that came from the Columbian exchange was the
introduction of slavery by the Spaniards because of the demise of the Indian population.