Republic of the Philippines

Mindanao State University- General Santos City

HISTORY DEPARTMENT
1st Semester, AY 2021-2022

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for

HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA (HIS104)

A RESEARCH PAPER ENTITLED

“The Columbian Exchange: Emergence of Colonial Plants,
Crops and Animals to the New World”

to
PROF. JOSHUA PHILIP D. CASTILLO
Professor

by

DAISY MARIE RANOCO

3rd Year – Bachelor of Arts Major in History

OCTOBER 2021
 ABSTRACT

In the past few decades, the Americas were home to more people than Europe when

Columbus landed, and that most lived in complex, highly organized societies. The colonization

by the European brought various changes to the region, as it ruptured many ecosystems, bringing

in new organisms while eliminating others. The ‘Columbian Exchange’, the mixing of people,

deadly diseases that devastated the Native American population, crops, and animals, goods, and

trade flows. The Columbian exchange offers improvements and new ideas to the Native

Americans; however, it also caused negative effects to native plants, crops, and animals that can

be found in the area.

In the written account of the historian, Alfred Crosby he first used the term “Columbian

Exchange” in the 1970s describes the massive interchange of people, animals, plants, and

diseases that took place between the Eastern and Western Hemispheres after Columbus arrived

in the Americas. The exchange also drastically increased the availability of many Old World

crops. The animal component of the Columbian Exchange was slightly less one-sided.  A

primary positive effect of the Columbian Exchange is the increased food supply of both the Old

World and the New World. The Columbian Exchange benefited the people of Europe and its

colonies much while causing Native Americans to suffer greatly.

The consequences of this event had an impact that profoundly shaped world history in the

ensuing centuries, most obviously in the Americas, Europe, and Africa. This had both positive

and negative aspects: Positive because they served as a valuable source for food however,

Negative because they destroyed their croplands. The Columbian Exchange started when

Christopher Columbus found, on accident, the New World, and it is still going on today and will

leave an everlasting mark in history for centuries to come.

 “The Columbian Exchange: The Emergence of Colonial Plants,

Crops and Animals to the New World”

Introduction

In the past few decades, the Americas were home to more people than Europe when

Columbus landed, and that most lived in complex, highly organized societies. The region was

inhabited largely by nomadic tribes who lived lightly on the territory, and the land was, for the

most part, a vast wilderness. Scholars had long assumed that the indigenous peoples of the

Americas were fewer, more culturally developed, and had less control over the natural terrain. 1

European nations arrived to the Americas to increase their riches and influence on global

concerns. The Spaniards were among the first Europeans to discover and establish what the

United States is now.2 The colonization by the European brought various changes to the region,

as it ruptured many ecosystems, bringing in new organisms while eliminating others. The

Europeans brought many diseases with them that decimated Native American populations.

Colonists and Native Americans alike looked to new plants as possible medicinal resources.3

The physical fact of the meeting and travel between the Old and the New World was a

huge environmental turning point, which was given the name of the ‘Columbian Exchange’, the

mixing of people, deadly diseases that devastated the Native American population, crops, and

animals, goods, and trade flows. The term ‘Columbian Exchange’ was coined by the historian,

Alfred Crosby in a book by that name in 1972, subtitled Biological and Cultural Consequences

1
NPR. NPR (John Ydstie, August 21, 2005). https://www.npr.org/2005/08/21/4805434/1491-explores-the-
americas-before-columbus. Accessed October 16, 2021.
2
“Colonial America,” Americas Library. https://www.americaslibrary.gov/jb/colonial/jb_colonial_subj.html.
Accessed October 16, 2021.
3
Ben Davis. “What Are the 3 Reasons European Colonization?” Mvorganizing.org. May 15, 2021.
https://www.mvorganizing.org/what-are-the-3-reasons-european-colonization/. Accessed October 16, 2021.
of 1492. The result of that exchange amounted to an environmental revolution in human

history. 4 The introduction of new crops and domesticated animals to the Americas did almost as

much to upset the region’s biological, economic, and social balance as the introduction of disease

had. Populations also were introduced to new weeds and pests, livestock, and pets. New food and

fiber crops were introduced to Eurasia and Africa, improving diets and fomenting trade there.5

The Columbian exchange offers improvements and new ideas to the Native Americans,

however, it also caused negative effects to native plants, crops, and animals that can be found in

the area. This historical case caught the interest of the researcher. This study entitled: “The

Columbian Exchange: The Emergence of Colonial Plants, Crops and Animals to the New

World”, aims to know what are those plants and animals brought by the colonizers and to

determine how it affects the natives in the American region.

4
Vejas Liulevicius. “Columbian Exchange and the Ideas of the New World.” The Great Courses Daily. June 26, 2020.
https://www.thegreatcoursesdaily.com/columbian-exchange-and-the-ideas-of-the-new-world/. Accessed October
16, 2021.
5
J.R. McNeill. “The Columbian Exchange.” NCpedia. https://www.ncpedia.org/anchor/columbian-exchange.
Accessed October 16, 2021.
 DISCUSSION

In this section, it will discuss the significant information gathered by the researcher

regarding the topic about the Columbian Exchange specifically, on the Colonial Plants, Crops,

and Animals to the New World. The discussion will focus on the negative effects of the

Columbian exchange and how it affects the natives in the American region.

In the written account of the historian, Alfred Crosby he first used the term “Columbian

Exchange” in the 1970s to describe the massive interchange of people, animals, plants, and

diseases that took place between the Eastern and Western Hemispheres after Columbus arrived

in the Americas. On Columbus’ second voyage to the Caribbean in 1493, he brought 17 ships

and more than 1,000 men to explore further and expand an earlier settlement on the island of

Hispaniola (present-day Haiti and the Dominican Republic). In the holds of their ships were

hundreds of domesticated animals including sheep, cows, goats, horses, and pigs—none of which

could be found in the Americas. The Europeans also brought seeds and plant cuttings to grow

Old World crops such as wheat, barley, grapes, and coffee in the fertile soil they found in the

Americas. 6

The Columbian Exchange: from the Old World to the New World

The crossing of the Atlantic by plants like cacao and tobacco illustrates how the

discovery of the New World changed the habits and behaviors of Europeans. Europeans changed

the New World in turn, not least by bringing Old World animals to the Americas. On his second

voyage, Christopher Columbus brought pigs, cows, chickens, and horses to the islands of the

Caribbean. Many Native Americans used horses to transform their hunting and gathering into a
6
Sarah Pruitt. “How the Columbian Exchange Brought Globalization—and Disease.” History.
https://www.history.com/news/columbian-exchange-impact-diseases?fbclid=IwAR3F--
7hMeeMdAcxDkHkhAOnN3Q0M7dl0FqKIZQgPKl-zE_nWHBe4nbdAs0. Accessed October 20, 2021.
highly mobile practice. The Columbian Exchange embodies both the positive and

negative environmental and health results of contact (Opens in a new window) as well as the

cultural shifts produced by such contact. Columbus brought sugar to Hispaniola in 1493, and the

new crop thrived. Over the next century of colonization, Caribbean islands and most other

tropical areas became centers of sugar production, which in turn fueled the demand to enslave

Africans for labor.7

New plants make new medicines

European expansion in the Americas led to an unprecedented movement of plants across

the Atlantic. A prime example is a tobacco, which became a valuable export as the habit of

smoking took hold in Europe. Another example is sugar. Columbus brought sugarcane to the

Caribbean on his second voyage from Spain in 1493, and thereafter a wide variety of other herbs,

flowers, seeds, and roots. Notably, Europeans traveled to America to discover new medicines.

The task of cataloging the new plants found there led to the emergence of the science of botany.8

Environmental changes

The arrival of Europeans in America triggered a slew of environmental changes that

harmed both local creatures and people. Because of the popularity of beaver-trimmed hats in

Europe, as well as Native Americans' yearning for European weaponry, beavers in the Northeast

were overhunted. Beavers were extinct in New England, New York, and other places within a

few years. Beaver ponds, which provided as fish habitat as well as water supplies for deer,

7
“The Columbian Exchange.” Khan Academy. https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/us-history/precontact-
and-early-colonial-era/old-and-new-worlds-collide/a/the-columbian-exchange-ka. Accessed October 20, 2021.
8
“Environmental and Health Effects of European Contact with the New World.” Khan Academy.
https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/us-history/precontact-and-early-colonial-era/old-and-new-worlds-
collide/a/environmental-and-health-effects-of-contact. Accessed October 20, 2021.
moose, and other species, were lost along with them. Pigs were also introduced by Europeans,

who allowed them to feed in woods and other natural areas. 9

The exchange also drastically increased the availability of many Old World crops, such

as sugar and coffee, which were the availability of many Old World crops, such as sugar and

coffee, which were particularly well-suited for the soils of the New World, particularly, well-

suited for the soils of the New World. The exchange not only brought gains but also losses. The

effects of the Columbian Exchange were not isolated to the parts of the effects of the Columbian

Exchange were not isolated to the parts of the world most directly participating in the exchange:

Europe and the Americas. It also world’s most directly participating in the exchange: Europe and

the Americas. It also had large, although less direct, impacts on Africa and Asia. 10

The animal component of the Columbian Exchange was slightly less one-sided. With the

new animals, Native Americans acquired new sources of hides, wool, and animal protein. Thus,

the introduced animal species had some important economic consequences in the Americas and

made the American hemisphere more similar to Eurasia and Africa in its economy. The new

animals made the Americas more like Eurasia and Africa in a second respect. One introduced

animal, the horse, rearranged political life even further. The Native Americans of the North

American prairies, often called Plains Indians, acquired horses from Spanish New Mexico late in

the 17th century. The introduction of horses also changed the way Native Americans hunted

buffalo on the Great Plains and made them formidable warriors against other tribes. The lack of

domesticated animals not only hampered Native Americans development of labor-saving

9
“Environmental and Health Effects of European Contact with the New World.” Khan Academy.
https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/us-history/precontact-and-early-colonial-era/old-and-new-worlds-
collide/a/environmental-and-health-effects-of-contact. Accessed October 20, 2021.
10
Nathan Nunn and Nancy Qian, “The Columbian Exchange: A History of Disease, Food, and Ideas,” The Columbian
Exchange: A History of Disease, Food, and Ideas 24, no. 2 (n.d.): pp. 163-188, 163.
https://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/faculty/qian/resources/NunnQianJEP.pdf. Accessed October 20, 2021.
technologies, it also limited their exposure to disease organisms and thus their immunity to

illness.11

The Columbian Exchange was more evenhanded when it came to crops. The Americas’

farmers’ gifts to other continents included staples such as corn (maize), potatoes, cassava, and

sweet potatoes, together with secondary food crops such as tomatoes, peanuts, pumpkins,

squashes, pineapples, and chili peppers. Some of these crops had revolutionary consequences in

Africa and Eurasia. Eurasian and African crops had an equally profound influence on the history

of the American hemisphere. Until the mid-19th century, “drug crops” such as sugar and coffee

proved the most important plant introductions to the Americas. Introduced staple food crops,

such as wheat, rice, rye, and barley, also prospered in the Americas12

The Transfer of New World Foods to the Old World

The Transfer of New World Foods to the Old World during the Columbian Exchange

had important consequences for world history. Historian Alfred Crosby (1989, p. 666) describes

the significance of the transfer of food crops between the continents, writing:

“The coming together of the continents was a prerequisite for the population explosion of the
past two centuries, and certainly played an important role in the Industrial Revolution. The transfer across
the ocean of the staple food crops of the Old and New Worlds made possible the former.” 13

Food from the Americas would change Africa, Asia, and Europe forever. The agricultural

products of cassava and sweet potatoes improved nutrition, while cacao, chili peppers, and

tomatoes increased vitamin intake. The potato changed the world in similar ways as well. New

World crops included maize (corn), chiles, tobacco, white and sweet potatoes, peanuts, tomatoes,

11
J.R. McNiell. “Columbian Exchange.” Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/event/Columbian-exchange.
Accessed October 20, 2021.
12
Ibid.
13
Nathan Nunn and Nancy Qian. “The Columbian Exchange: A History of Disease, Food, and Ideas.” The Columbian
Exchange: A History of Disease, Food, and Ideas 24, no. 2 (n.d.): pp. 163-188.
https://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/faculty/qian/resources/NunnQianJEP.pdf. Accessed October 20, 2021.
papaya, pineapples, squash, pumpkins, and avocados. New World cultures domesticated only a

few animals, including some small-dog species, guinea pigs, llamas, and a few species of fowl.

Such animals were domesticated largely for their use as food and not as beasts of burden.  14

By introducing new crops from the Americas to Europe, the Columbian Exchange aided

population expansion and ushered in Europe's economic transition to capitalism. Colonization

altered ecosystems, introducing new species such as pigs while eradicating others such as

beavers. Native Americans were introduced to animals that would be of use later on. A primary

positive effect of the Columbian Exchange is the increased food supply of both the Old World

and the New World. Various crops such as wheat, barley, and rye, were introduced by Columbus

and his followers. 15

Plants carried back to Europe enriched nutrition in the Old World and this resulted in

major population explosions. The Columbian Exchange was not limited to the movement of

food, but it was a very large portion of what occurred. The world as we know it would not be the

same without it. Despite this, Columbus believed he was altering the world. In some ways, he

did, but Indigenous peoples of the Americas and their inventiveness were the ones who truly

changed the globe and the lives of millions. The Columbian Exchange benefited the people of

Europe and its colonies much while causing Native Americans to suffer greatly.

14
Katie Lloyd. “The Columbian Exchange: How the New World Affected the Old.” Panoramas.
https://www.panoramas.pitt.edu/other/columbian-exchange-how-new-world-affected-old. Accessed October 20,
2021.
15
Ben Davis. “What Were the Effects of the Columbian Exchange on the Old World?” MVOrganizing. May 2, 2021.
https://www.mvorganizing.org/what-were-the-effects-of-the-columbian-exchange-on-the-old-world/. Accessed
October 20, 2021.
 FINDINGS AND CONCLUSION

This section presents the summary of findings and the conclusion of the study

As Columbian exchange was the largest part of a more general process of biological

globalization that followed the transoceanic voyaging of the 15th and 16th centuries, the

consequences of this event really had an impact that profoundly shaped world history in the

ensuing centuries, most obviously in the Americas, Europe, and Africa. Throughout the

exploration of the British colonizers to the American region, Plants, animals, and illnesses were

carried over the Atlantic. European crops and domesticated animals like horses, pigs, sheep, and

cattle were introduced to America, along with weeds and pests, while American species like

potatoes, tomatoes, and corn entered the European diet. It clearly stated that the exchange really

had impacts on Europe, because new types of food and animals were brought back to Europe. In

connection, this had both positive and negative aspects: Positive because they served as a

valuable source for food however, Negative because they destroyed their croplands.

To conclude, it’s important to note that God, wealth, and glory are the three main

motivations for European exploration and colonization of the New World. As, Columbian

exchange was the transfer of plants, animals, humans, cultures, germs, and ideas between the

Americas and the Old World, the result was a biological and ideological mixing unprecedented

in the history of the planet, and one that forever shaped the cultures that participated. The

Columbian Exchange started when Christopher Columbus found, on accident, the New World,

and it is still going on today and will leave an everlasting mark in history for centuries to come.

New resources were traded between the Old and New Worlds, cultures were shared, religion was

spread, etc. But where there is positive, there is usually a negative side, such as slavery, disease,

and wars. 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ben Davis. “What Are the 3 Reasons European Colonization?” Mvorganizing.org. May 15,
2021. https://www.mvorganizing.org/what-are-the-3-reasons-european-colonization/.
Accessed October 16, 2021.
Ben Davis. “What Were the Effects of the Columbian Exchange on the Old World?”
MVOrganizing. May 2, 2021. https://www.mvorganizing.org/what-were-the-effects-of-
the-columbian-exchange-on-the-old-world/. Accessed October 20, 2021.
“Colonial America,” Americas Library.
https://www.americaslibrary.gov/jb/colonial/jb_colonial_subj.html. Accessed October 16,
2021.
“Environmental and Health Effects of European Contact with the New World.” Khan Academy.
https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/us-history/precontact-and-early-colonial-
era/old-and-new-worlds-collide/a/environmental-and-health-effects-of-contact. Accessed
October 20, 2021.
J.R. McNeill. “Columbian Exchange.” Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/event/Columbian-
exchange. Accessed October 20, 2021.
J.R. McNeill. “The Columbian Exchange.” NCpedia.
https://www.ncpedia.org/anchor/columbian-exchange. Accessed October 16, 2021.
Katie Lloyd. “The Columbian Exchange: How the New World Affected the Old.” Panoramas.
https://www.panoramas.pitt.edu/other/columbian-exchange-how-new-world-affected-old.
Accessed October 20, 2021.
Nathan Nunn and Nancy Qian. “The Columbian Exchange: A History of Disease, Food, and
Ideas.” The Columbian Exchange: A History of Disease, Food, and Ideas 24, no. 2 (n.d.):
pp. 163-188.
https://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/faculty/qian/resources/NunnQianJEP.pdf.
Accessed October 20, 2021.
NPR. NPR (John Ydstie, August 21, 2005). https://www.npr.org/2005/08/21/4805434/1491-
explores-the-americas-before-columbus. Accessed October 16, 2021.
Sarah Pruitt. “How the Columbian Exchange Brought Globalization—and Disease.” History.
https://www.history.com/news/columbian-exchange-impact-diseases?fbclid=IwAR3F--
7hMeeMdAcxDkHkhAOnN3Q0M7dl0FqKIZQgPKl-zE_nWHBe4nbdAs0. Accessed
October 20, 2021.
“The Columbian Exchange.” Khan Academy. https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/us-
history/precontact-and-early-colonial-era/old-and-new-worlds-collide/a/the-columbian-
exchange-ka. Accessed October 20, 2021.
Vejas Liulevicius. “Columbian Exchange and the Ideas of the New World.” The Great Courses
Daily. June 26, 2020. https://www.thegreatcoursesdaily.com/columbian-exchange-and-
the-ideas-of-the-new-world/. Accessed October 16, 2021.