The Columbian Exchange

We refer to it as the exchange of goods, ideas, diseases, crops… between the New World and
the Old World (EU and the entire east hemisphere).

 Crops: potatoes, maize, cassava, tomatoes, chili peppers, cacao, peanuts, tobacco,
sugar, coffee…
 Diseases: Black Death and syphilis (to EU), smallpox, typhus, cholera, measles (to AME)

Demand for labor in AME (high death rates due to the diseases and increasing crops) + quinine
(affective treatment vs malaria) -> EU colonized Africa

Diseases
 Before European contact, Americans suffered no diseases.
 Within 100-150 years, 80-95% of native Americans died.

Syphilis -> A New World disease with 2 theories of expansion.

1. Columbus crew took it from the natives and spread it across EU and so on.
2. Its origin is from the Old World but it was not differentiated prior to 1490.

However, a study has shown syphilis strongly relates to tropical climate.

New World foods to the Old World

New World food improved the Old World food by bringing calories, nutrients, vitamins… this
made improve the cuisine.

 Chili pepper -> Curry in India, paprika in Hungary, spicy kimchee in Korea.
 Tomatoes -> Mediterranean diet

Unpopulated and suitable land for crops -> Americas become main suppliers of coffee, sugar,
soybean, oranges, bananas…

New World crops’ easy adaptation to other soils has made them successful, being highly
produced and consumed in Old World countries.

The potato has become one of the most important crops everywhere, due to its high vitamins
and nutrients. Impact on population growth and on urbanization.

Capsicum peppers -> Used in lots of diets for different functions. They provide several health
advantages and are used in medicine.

Tomatoes -> Healthy and highly used across the world but they preserve badly.

Cacao -> To make chocolate. High energy output. Firstly, produced by the Spanish.

Plain vanilla -> Considered a luxury. Highly used by EU.

Tobacco -> Firstly used as a hallucinogen and painkiller. Then as a medicine and currency.

Coca -> Firstly experimental, as it increased stamina and decreased hunger.

Improved Cultivation of Old World Foods in the New World
Sugar cane -> Old World crop brought to the New World.

Indirect Consequences of the Columbian Exchange

 Quinine -> “Europe’s colonization of Africa would have been virtually impossible
without quinine”. It allowed them to go into dangerous tropical zones.
 Rubber -> Firstly used by African and American natives for their tools and guns. Later
by EU for shoes. Grew up exponentially, used as an insulator for electricity. The top
producers are in Asia, whilst in early 20th century also Congo. Atrocities also took place
during rubber production; Congo’s population decreased heavily.
 Migrations to America -> 16th-19th century, 12M Africans shipped to America (slave
trade). To supply cheap labor (cotton, sugar, railways…).
o 1851-1924 -> 45M migrated from Old World to Americas

Conclusions

 The Colombus Exchange resulted in a large income for Europe, probably a fuel to the
Industrial Revolution.
 Access to new crops (vice versa).
 Native American populations decimated.
 Slave trade (huge African deportation -> devastating consequences).
 The New World was a lot more developed than thought.
 Tropical Africa’s history would have been very different if European mortality had
continued at the old rate.