THE COLUMBIAN EXCHANGE

The movement of plants, animals, and people across the

Atlantic Ocean between 1492 and 1850 that connected the
four world zones and created global networks

Plants from the Americas immediately
had a positive impact in Europe, Asia, and
Africa, leading to the greatest population
increase in history. Maize, cassava, and
potatoes, for example, each grew quickly,
withstood droughts, were easy to store,
and were extremely caloric. They
increased the variety of food people could
eat, as well as providing them far more
energy than other plants.
The animals that were brought from the Old World to the New
completely remade the food supply. The abundance of meat
and plentiful land for agriculture and grazing meant that
Europeans in the Americas very rarely experienced famine.
Larger European animals changed the nature of work in the
Americas. Oxen, when combined with plows, made it possible to
bring more land under cultivation and also made
transportation easier and more efficient. The introduction of
horses allowed many Native Americans to abandon agriculture
in favor of a more fruitful nomadic lifestyle.

The Columbian Exchange led to the repopulation of the New

Almost 90 percent of
Natives died as a result of
European arrival and the
spread of disease.
World following the disease devastation of the initial
encounter, and better nutrition allowed the population of the
Old World to grow, which in turn placed population pressure on
Eurasia and more people coming to the Americas. In the
process, people became more genetically and ethnically
interconnected, but this interconnection also resulted in many
cultural horrors, such as Atlantic slavery.
 The crops Europeans wanted - sugar, tobacco, indigo - they were unfamiliar with and didn’t know how to
harvest. Further, there weren’t enough Europeans crossing the Atlantic, free or unfree, to staff the
plantations. So, the Atlantic slave trade began, devastating African communities in both Africa, where
millions were ripped from their homes, and in the Americas, where racism started to shape the lives of
those who were forced to live and labor there. Nonetheless, an economic undertaking of goods, fueling the
development of colonial settlements and the wealth of European nations, arose. The slave trade, in all its
horror, finally allowed Europeans to become the producers, movers, and consumers of goods that
originated outside of Europe. It transformed European life and society by creating markets for food and
commodities that were previously unknown to Europe.

Illustration of the French slave ship the “Vigilante” from the nineteenth century

There are two main reasons

small groups of Europeans
succeeded in dominating vast
numbers of native people in
the Americas in a relatively
short period of time:
1. The great dying - natives
were exposed to new
infections which had a
catastrophic impact on
their population
2. Massive harsh treatment -
forced migration,
enslavement, abusive labor
demand, and exorbitant
tribute payments - and
ecological devastation
accompanying colonization

Consequences of the Columbian Exchange:

It made the world slightly richer – more goods on the move, more cash changing hands.
It made the disease pools more homogeneous, as more and more people were exposed to the
same diseases and developed new resistance to them.
It made the world more unequal because some populations were better able to take
advantage of the new connections than others.