The Columbian Exchange1

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Columbian exchange by design is the exchange of factors cum issues like global trade

and investments, ideas, maladies, produce and the movement of people between the old world

and the new world as a result of the incursion into United States of America by Christopher

Columbus in the year nineteen forty two (1942). This interaction did not only lead to the

exchange of ideas and agricultural produce but it also marked the beginning of industrialization

since it opened doors for the discovery of metal ores and the establishment of industries that

dealt with the same. Further, old world nations like Korea, Hungary, India, Greece and Italy

unremittingly received agricultural produce like maize, cassava, pepper, sweet potatoes,

tomatoes and peanuts. The aforementioned old world nations hence embarked on the cultivation

of the aforesaid crops in large scale leading to the introduction of trade between the European

nations and the acceptance of tobacco as a legal tender. Subsequently, old world crops could now

abundantly thrive in the new world and vice versa1.

This trade between the old world and the new world had its pros and cons; it ultimately

led to the introduction of viral and bacterial infections like measles, herpes, syphilis, mumps and

cholera from other European nations by European explorers and sailors into The United States of

America which was predominantly occupied by the Indians1.

1Nunn Nathan and Qian Nancy. The Columbian Exchange: A History of disease, food and ideas. Journal of

economic perspectives, 24(2):163-188, 2010.

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This therefore not only impacted the Native Americans particularly the red Indians but

the ominous effects of these pernicious maladies also spread to continents like Africa and Asia.

With the increasing number of deaths continuously being experienced coupled with the

diminishing population, need for food production and disease control thus heightened as it is

approximated that about 90% of the Native Americans had succumbed to the bacterial and viral

diseases. Upon coming into contact with voyagers and explorers like Christopher Columbus and

his team, populations like the Taino of the Hispanola Island and the Mexican cities had virtually

undergone extinction1. The most prevalent disease contacted by the new world from the

Hispanics was syphilis and it was later spread to other European and Eastern nations like Spain,

Hungary, Russia India and China respectively1.

The discovery of quinine which was an anti-malarial drug and rubber by the new world

also took place. Old world nations seeing quinine’s importance in the cure of malaria, adopted its

cultivation outside the South American states; a phenomenon that perhaps favoured their

incursions and colonization of other North and South American nations1. Native Americans, at

around 1770, primarily used rubber to make jars and balls. By the late 1890, European countries

like Britain now established industries specifically for shoes production from rubber. Also, there

was the massive enslavement and migration between new world and old world nations in the

midst of the eighteenth century since vast agricultural plantations cum land especially in the

Caribbean needed cheap labour that was readily available from Indochina1.

1Nunn Nathan and Qian Nancy. The Columbian Exchange: A History of disease, food and ideas. Journal of

economic perspectives, 24(2):163-188, 2010.

The Columbian Exchange3

As a result of the Columbian exchange, Mexican populations also deteriorated as a result

of the diseases brought by the Europeans2. Economically, the Columbian exchange augmented

both Agrarian and Industrial revolutions and the increased global use of tobacco as the legal

tender and the introduction of new farming tools. Novel crops and animal species like potatoes,

spices, coffee, oranges, apples and tomatoes and cattle and horses were introduced into the new

world from the old world respectively thus supplementing the new world nutritional

requirements. Vast virgin and rich American lands were discovered for cultivation. Increase in

agricultural production and the adoption of new crops like sugar and new farming methods

drastically changed the economic face of Europe 2.

The Columbian exchange therefore spawned economic capitalisms amongst European

merchants and investors who continued to set up thriving business empires throughout America

therefore exploiting the natives of lower socio-economic caste; a phenomenon that encouraged

the conquering and exploitation of the Aztecs by the Cortes’s for cheap labour2. As such, old

world nations became thirstier for wealth hence increased crop production and trade in gold and

silver with the new world hundred fold. Countries like Great Britain colonized nations of great

economic importance. As much as the economic faces of powerful nations both in Europe and

America changed in the sixteenth century (16th century), European society’s goods production

and wealth doubled3.

2Thomas Grennes. The Columbian Exchange and the revesal of fortune. Cato journal, 27(1): 91-107, 2007.3Egerton R. Douglas et al. The Atlantic World: a history, 1400-1888. Wheeling: Illinois Harlan Davidson, 2007.

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Conclusion

Conclusively, the general importance of the Columbian exchange and its impacts on both

the Europeans and the Indians cannot be wished away. New world nations readily accepted

goods and agricultural produce from the old world nations like sugarcane, olive, among others

and subsequently cultivating them since they had good environmental and geographical

conditions for the same. By increasing the production of these agricultural produce initially

originating from the old world, the economies of both the new world and the world did not only

improve but also led to the introduction of new drugs like quinine that was realized through

trade.

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Bibliography

Egerton R. Douglas et al. The Atlantic World: a history, 1400-1888. Wheeling: Illinois Harlan

Davidson, 2007.

Nunn Nathan and Qian Nancy. The Columbian Exchange: A History of disease, food and ideas. Journal

of economic perspectives, 24(2):163-188, 2010.

Thomas Grennes. The Columbian Exchange and the revesal of fortune. Cato journal, 27(1): 91-107,

2007.