The Columbian Exchange

What was the Columbian Exchange?

After Christopher Columbus’ Discovery more and more Europeans started to venture across the Atlantic.

Interaction with the Indigenous people led to big cultural changes.

Exchange of physical elements: animals, plants, diseases, weapons, etc.

Animals Llamas were the only domesticated

animals in Latin America. – Europeans brought horses, pigs, cattle,

sheep.

Plants Europeans brought cash crops to the

Americas: sugar, rice, wheat, coffee, bananas, & grapes. – New crops flourished in the Americas.

Europeans adopt crops found in the Americas: maize, tomatoes, potatoes, tobacco, cocoa, beans, & cotton.

The Introduction of New Diseases Nearly all of the European diseases were

communicable by air & touch. Smallpox, measles, diphtheria, whooping cough,

chicken pox, bubonic plague, scarlet fever, Typhoid and influenza were the most common diseases exchanged.

Illness in Europe was considered to be the consequence of sin. – Indians, who were largely “heathen” or non-

Christian were regarded as sinners and therefore subject to illness as a punishment.

Devastating Impact of Diseases

Native Americans had no immunity or natural resistance to European diseases . – population continued to decline for

centuries

Inca empire decreased from 13 million in 1492 to 2 million in 1600.

North American population fell from 2 million in 1492 to 500,000 in 1900.

Smallpox

Central Mexico - 25 million in 1519 to less than one million in 1605

Hispañola - One million in 1492 to 46,000 in 1512

North America - 90% of Native Americans gone within 100 years of Plymouth landing

Effects of Diseases

Native American population dramatically decreases

Europeans need labor to cultivate new crops in the Americas, but there aren’t many natives left.

Europeans look to Africa & begin to import African slaves to the Americas.

Impact of the Columbian Exchange

Different Foods – Exchange of foods & animals had a dramatic impact on

later societies. – Over time, crops native to the Americas became staples

in the diets of Europeans. – Foods provided nutrition, helped people live longer. – Until contact with Americas, Europeans had never tried

tomatoes--by 1600s, tomatoes were included in Italian cookbooks.

Economics – Activities like cattle ranching and coffee growing were

not possible without Columbian Exchange. – Traditional cuisines changed because of Columbian

Exchange.

Effects Around the Globe The Columbian Exchange not only impacted

Europe & the Americas, but also… China:

– Arrival of easy-to-grow, nutritious corn helped the population grow tremendously.

Africa: – two native crops of Americas--corn, peanuts--

still among most widely grown Scholars estimate one-third of all food

crops grown in the world are of American origin.

The influence of African Slavery Finding Cheap labor was

a goal for Europeans in the 1500s. – After gold and silver was

taken from the Natives, Europeans needed to start mining to find more.

– With crops such as sugar cane Europeans needed cheap labor.

– Natives were not a good choice for Cheap labor because so many of them died from diseases and or fled to the jungles.

So…..Africa was a destination to find cheap labor.

Brought to the Americas by ship Africans were forced to do hard labor on farms or in mines. – Poor housing

– Poor nutrition

– Long work hours

– Made Life very difficult.

– 300 years of this dependency on slaves for business made European nations a lot of money.

Cont…

As many countries gained freedom from Europe many ended slavery.

Today, the descendants of African slaves are part of the culture of Latin America.

Intermarriage of people from different continents has produced a diverse culture.

People with ancestors from both Africa and Europe are known as Mulattoes. – 60% of Cubans – 50% of Brazilians fall

into these groups.

Portuguese Slave Trade

The Portuguese population was too small to provide a large number of colonists.

The sugar plantations required a large labor force.

Slaves filled this demand.

Europeans and Africans Meet to Trade

Slave Trade and Sugar

Portuguese crop growers extended the use of slave labor to South America.

Because of this, Brazil would eventually become the wealthiest of the sugar-producing lands in the western hemisphere.

Slavery Expands

In 1518, the first shipment of slaves went directly from West Africa to the Caribbean where the slaves worked on sugar plantations.

By the 1520s, the Spanish had introduced slaves to Mexico, Peru, and Central America where they worked as farmers and miners.

By the early 17th century, the British had introduced slaves to North America.

The demand for labor in the western

hemisphere encouraged a money-

making triangular trading pattern.

Triangular Trade

Route

Triangular Trade

The triangular trade demonstrates how people were reduced to commodities to be sold.

Goods such as metal, cloth, beads and guns went from Europe to Africa, enslaved Africans went to America and the Caribbean, and raw products such as sugar, tobacco and cotton came back to Europe.

Capture

The original capture of slaves was almost always violent.

As European demand grew, African chieftains organized raiding parties to seize individuals from neighboring societies.

Others launched wars specifically for the purpose of capturing slaves.

“Africans became enslaved mainly through four ways:

first, criminals sold by the chiefs as punishment;

secondly, free Africans obtained from raids by African and a few European gangs;

thirdly, domestic slaves resold, and

fourthly; prisoners of war." (Adu Boahen (University of Ghana).

Africans in the Americas

--As the major European powers of Portugal, Britain, France, and the Netherlands looked for ways to exploit the fertile lands of the New World, they looked to Africa for a steady supply of labor.

--Soon, African slaves had become absolutely vital to the cultivation of sugar, tobacco, cotton, and rice plantations.

--As European demand for sugar began to increase, plantations began to spring up throughout Brazil and the Caribbean.

--Sugar cultivation created a huge demand for slave labor from Africa.

--Many plantations produced additional crops such as indigo, rice, tobacco, and coffee.

Plantations

After crossing the Atlantic, most African slaves went to plantations in the tropical or subtropical regions of the western hemisphere.

The first was established by the Spanish on Hispaniola in 1516.

Originally the predominant crop was sugar. In addition to sugar, plantations produced crops like tobacco, indigo, and cotton.

1530s--Portuguese began organizing plantations in Brazil, and Brazil became the world’s leading supplier of sugar.

Plantations

All were designed to export commercial crops for profit.

Relied almost exclusively on large amounts of slave labor supervised by small numbers of European or Euro-American managers.

Brazilian sugar mill in the 1830s

Impact of Triangular Trade

Cultural Diffusion:

– The slave trade spread ideas & goods between cultures.

– Europeans brought new weapons to Africa.

– Africans brought part of their culture (music, traditions, food, language, etc.) to the Americas.