The Age of Exploration and the Commercial Revolution
IV. The Columbian Exchange
- A. Introduction
- 1. The Age of Exploration – also called the Age of Discovery – involved more than just the search for gold, silver, and spices.
- 2. The new discoveries sparked an unprecedented global diffusion of agricultural products, animals, diseases, and human populations.
- B. New World to Old World
- 1. Agricultural products: potatoes, maize, tomatoes, peanuts, tobacco, vanilla, and chocolate
- 2. Animals: turkeys
- 3. Diseases: syphilis
- C. Old World to New World
- 1. Agricultural products: coffee, cane sugar, wheat, and rice
- 2. Animals: cows, horses, pigs, sheep, goats, and chickens
- 3. Diseases: smallpox, measles, and diphtheria
- 4. Human populations: European colonists and African slaves
- D. Consequences of the Columbian Exchange
- 1. For the New World
- a. European diseases decimated indigenous populations. Approximately 90 percent of the indigenous peoples of the Americas perished between 1492 and 7600.
- b. The introduction of the horse transformed the culture of the Plains Indians of North America.
- 2. For Europe
- a. The new crops revolutionized the European diet and helped feed a growing population.
- b. The new Caribbean sugar plantations along with the rich silver and gold mines in Peru brought an influx of wealth to Spain that helped trigger inflation.
- c. The wealth generated by New World colonies dramatically increased the power of western Europe.
- 3. For Africa
- a. The wealth produced by New World sugar and tobacco plantations promoted the triangular trading system and the trans-Atlantic slave trade.
- b. Between 1500 and 1800, Africans comprised the largest group of people transported to the New World.
NOTE: The Columbian exchange is generating an increasing number of questions on APEURO exams. Test writers are using multiple-choice questions to test your know/edge of the agricultural products, animals, diseases, and human populations involved in the exchange. They are using essay questions to test your knowledge of the effects of the Columbian exchange on Europe's population and economy.
