How Did The Columbian Exchange Affect The World

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The Columbian Exchange is known throughout the world as one of the most spectacular and ecological events to ever take place. You could look at the Exchange as something that had a negative effect on the world but I firmly believe that with all the positives that come from this trade, the negatives are outmatched. The Columbian Exchange had many positive effects on the social, economies, and all of the cultures of both the New and Old Worlds. One of the greatest things to come from the Columbian Exchange was the increase of food production throughout the entire globe. Economically, the Columbian Exchange had such a great impact on the Old and New Worlds. One of, if not the greatest impact the Exchange had on the world, was the increase in food supply. I really like a quote from a famous historian by the name of Alfred Crosby, he said the following: “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”. That quote shows the importance of trading staple crops from one world to the other. Some of the crops and food that the New World gave to the Old one consisted of; potatoes, tomatoes, chocolate, and corn. The Old World responded by giving some of their own staple crops to the New World, such as wheat, sugar, coffee, and rice. The Old World also gave the new world some of their own livestock such as some horses, cows, and pigs. With these exchanges in food, the overall health of the people was increased because they were now getting more nutrients in their diet than they had previously gotten and also helped them get through some famines. With all the different goods, crops, and information that were traded, both of the worlds benefited tremendously. Socially, I believe the Exchange boosted the moral of the entire world. One of the big advancements happened in the agricultural production. With the discovery of the New World, Europeans and Native Americans were able to use a lot of that land for more farm land so that they could produce more goods. Horses also had a large impact socially on the …show more content…
One of the most common diseases that was spread was smallpox. These kinds of diseases spread so fast, that sometimes Europeans had caught diseases from the Native Americans without even coming in contact with them and vice versa with the Native Americans. You know that saying about trying to find a positive in every negative thing? Well, I look at it this way, with these diseases being spread, I feel like more that people know about them, the better chance there will be that someone can find a cure for it. These diseases ended up killing a large portion of the population throughout the world which lead to more problems such as slavery. In the Americas, the germs killed off nearly 90 percent of the native people so. Slavery in America played a huge role in the culture back then. It was socially acceptable to have slaves back then but if you look at the world today, you would be a looked at much

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