the columbian exchange

The Columbian Exchange

Before 1492Two very different ecosystems

Two different disease pools

Two sets of flora and fauna

Two sets of culturally

diverse peoples

“...all the trees were as different from ours as day from night, and so the fruits, the herbage, the rocks, and all things.”

-- Christopher Columbus

Two biological ecosystems interchanged to create a new world ecology.

The Exchange of Plants and AnimalsOriginally from the Western Hemisphere• Potato• Maize (corn)• Manioc (cassava, tapioca)• Sweet potato• Tomato• Cacao (chocolate)• Squash• Chili peppers • Pumpkin• Papaya• Guava• Tobacco• Avocado• Pineapple• Beans (most varieties, including

phaseolus vulgaris)• Peanuts• Certain cottons• Rubber• Turkeys

Originally from the Eastern Hemisphere

• Sugar• Olive oil• Various grains (Wheat, rice, rye,

barley, oats)• Grapes• Coffee• Horses• Cattle• Pigs• Goats• Sheep• Chickens• Various fruit trees (pear, apple,

peach, orange, lemon, pomegranate, fig, banana)

• Chick peas • Melons • Radishes• A wide variety of weeds and

grasses• Cauliflower• Cabbage

The Columbian Exchange

According to historian Alfred Crosby, the exchange of plants, animals and pathogens between the two hemispheres was biologically “the most spectacular thing that has ever happened to humans," and he coined the phenomenon the Columbian ExchangeColumbian Exchange.

An Exchange of Pathogens

The smallpox virus

A Demographic Collapse

In Mexico alone, the native population fell from In Mexico alone, the native population fell from roughly 30 million in 1519 to only 3 million in 1568.roughly 30 million in 1519 to only 3 million in 1568.

Aztecs afflicted with Smallpox Modern-day

victims of smallpox

The greatest impact of the Columbian Exchange was the exchange of different food

crops.Sweet Potatos

CassavaPotatosPotatos

An Increase in Food Supply Helped Populations to Rise

The eventual result of all the exchanging of different foodcrops was a dramatic increase in food supply, which in turncaused a rise in population. How and why did this happen?An entirely new food plant or set of food plants permits theutilization of soils and seasons that have previously goneunused, thus causing a real jump in food production and,therefore, population. The benefits went both ways.

The effects of the columbian exchange are still with us

today.

Bit by bit, we are becoming more homogenized,

and the world is becoming smaller.

Is the world growing more the same?