Name: _______________________________World HistoryEarly Modern Era- Cause and effects of The Columbian Exchange

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EQ- Part I - What were the causes of the Columbian Exchange?

Context- Early Modern Era

Part I- Causes of the Columbian Exchange – Rise of European Explorers

The most significant change in global trade between 1450 and 1750 was the rise and involvement of the Europeans.

Beginning with Portugal and Spain, European countries would commission the exploration, charting, and

colonization of a huge portion of the world. The advancements that enabled them to do this, however, did not

originate in a vacuum. Europeans adapted, improved, and synthesized the use of technologies and knowledge

deriving from many cultures. 

Navigation Technologies 

Islamic civilization had long possessed the need for astronomical and geographic knowledge. Muslims schools were

expected to pronounce daily prayer times, calculate the exact time of the holy month of Ramadan, and provide the

faithful with the direction of Mecca for the purpose of prayer. To address these religious matters they developed

the astrolabe which enabled them to solve "300 types of problems in astronomy, geography, and

trigonometry." [1] Through Muslim Spain, the astrolabe entered Christian Europe. Borrowing the basic principles of

the Islamic astrolabe, the Portuguese created the mariner's astrolabe, an instrument whose functions were limited

to and designed specifically for the purpose of navigation. At sea, the mariner's astrolabe helped ships determine

their latitude by aligning the instrument with the sun or a known star.

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Innovations in Ship Design Another European advancement based on previous technologies was the caravel, a

light, fast, and maneuverable ship first devised by the Portuguese. (Columbus constantly praised his favorite ship,

the Niña which along with the Pinta seemed to be a caravel.[6]) Lighter, requiring a smaller crew, and able to carry

more cargo than the typical oar-driven Mediterranean ships, [7] the caravel adopted the lateen sail first pioneered by

Arab merchants in the India Ocean. This gave these ships the ability to tack into the face of the wind. The caravel

was able to carry a large cargo with an inordinately small crew, thus decreasing the cost of shipping and increasing

profits. Developing about a century after the caravel was the Spanish galleon, a large multi-deck ship with at least

three or four masts. The forward sails were large rectangular power sails with the last mast usually carrying a lateen

sail. These ships were the primary vessels of the Spanish Treasure Fleet and were capable of carrying an

enormous volume of cargo. They carried most of the slaves across the Atlantic via the dreaded Middle Passage.

Europeans were the first to mount firearms on their ships, outfitting their caravels and galleons with broadside

canon. Thus armed, these ships gave Europeans the capacity to project unprecedented power. Use this space for notes

Read complete the OPTIC steps for the reading and pictures below:

Magellan's Victoria Replica Carrack

Carracks were also used by Vasco de Gama for the first successful trip to India around the Cape of Good Hope. In 1498, de Gama left Portugal with 170 men, 3 carracks and one caravel; he returned 22 months later with only 2 ships and 55 men. He had sailed 24,000 miles and spent 300 days at sea [ BBC History ]. For the next 100 years, the Portuguese controled the East India trade, sending a fleet to India almost every year, scheduled to coincide with the monsoons. For more details see our historical page.

Carracks for exploration like the Santa Maria or de Gama's San Gabriel were small, about 90 tons; but merchant ships would average 250-500 tons with a crew of 40-80 and some war ships went up to 1000 tons. The average speed was about 80 miles/day and the trip to India took 6 to 8 months each way.

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Knowledge of Wind and Sea Currents Europeans were also aided by their growing familiarity with the global

environment and their adaptation to it. The Portuguese learned that the most efficient maritime route between two

points is not always a strait line. This could involve fighting the wind and sea currents. Consequently, they

developed a strategy known as the volta do mar, or turn of the sea. Often going far out of their way, the Portuguese

and other European sailors learned instead to work with the currents. For example, when Vasco da Gama sought a

route to the Indian Ocean around Africa, he sailed nearly to the coast of Brazil before he caught the westerlies that

took him around the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of Africa.[8] Knowledge of such trade winds allowed

sailors to be more efficient by using, rather than going against, the grain of nature.

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III. Remarkable new transoceanic maritime reconnaissance occurred in this period. 

A. Unaffected by the ravages of Europe's 100 Years War and Spain's civil strife, Portugal became the first

European nation to embark on a program of exploration. King John's son, Prince Henry, was motivated by a

crusading zeal to convert heathens to Christianity and an economic zeal to gain access to west Africa's legendary

sources of gold. Henry's capture of the Muslim city of Ceuta in 1415 opened the western coast of Africa to

Portuguese exploration, and by the year of Henry's death in 1460 his country had arrived in Guinea on Africa's

western coast. Soon African gold was flowing by sea from west Africa directly to Iberia rather than across the trans-

Saharan caravan routes. Algiers and Tunis in north Africa were economically devastated by this rerouting of trade.

Portugal got rich. [9] As contacts with west African societies continued the Portuguese began trading in ivory and

slaves as well. 

After a dispute with his father, Prince Henry returned home to Portugal but avoided the capital of Lisbon where he

could have easily gained a comfortable royal job. Instead, he settled in the remove coastal town of Sagres which he

turned into a center of navigational studies and cartography. Now called Prince Henry the Navigator, he collected

fresh information from newly arrived sailors to produce the most current maps possible. The compass, thought by

many Europeans to be driven my occult powers, was disenchanted of superstition and its use expanded and

refined. Since initial Portuguese voyages traveled north and south exploring Africa, more precise means of

measuring latitude were researched. Borrowing elements of Arabic shipbuilding, Prince Henry and his engineers

designed the famous caravel, mentioned above. All the elements needed for global exploration were brought

together by Prince Henry at Sagres. Portugal was poised to take the lead, albeit brief, in the exploration and

exploitation of the globe. [10] 

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Equipped with new maritime instruments and knowledge, the Portuguese accomplished many "firsts" in global

exploration. In 1487 Bartholomew Diaz sailed his caravel around the southern tip of Africa, the first European to do

so (his crew refused to press on to India). Then Vasco da Gama became the first to sail all the way to India in 1498;

Europeans had found the illusive water route to the lucrative Indian Ocean trade network. The Portuguese strategy

in the Indian Ocean was to dominate trade through the use of firepower, intimidation, and brutality. In the long run

they were never able to completely monopolize this network but did succeed in building a trading-post empire which gave them a significant share of the spice and slave trade. With over 50 trading posts from southeast

Asia to Africa's west coast, they attempted to force merchants to call at these ports and pay duties. They also

required merchants to purchase passports from them; sailors caught at sea without one were mutilated and had

their cargo confiscated. Despite these grand plans, the Portuguese had neither the manpower nor the fleet to carry

out their demands. Many Indian Ocean merchants took their chances and sailed without passports or paying dues

at Portuguese trading-posts. And the Spanish, English and Dutch sailors hired by the Portuguese to work their fleet

took the knowledge of the seas back to their respective countries who were organizing their own expeditions to

Asia. [11] The Portuguese began the explorations but were soon to be strong-armed out of the way by their European

neighbors.

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B. In 1476 a 25 year old Christopher Columbus washed onto the Portuguese shore with a broken oar he had used as a float. The cargo ship he worked on had been sunk by a French fleet near Gibraltar. As fortune would have it, the place where he reached the shore was only a few miles from Sagres, the location of Prince Henry's research center of navigation and cartography. Having grown up in Genoa on the Italian coast, Columbus had long possessed a fascination with sailing. But his time in Portugal, particularly Lisbon, would prove to be the most formative for what he would unwittingly accomplish. 

The idea that sailing west would led one to Asia was not new. What was novel about Columbus was his conviction

that the distance between Europe and Asia to the west was not significant. Basing his argument on Marco Polo's description of the distance across Eurasia and Ptolemy's longitudinal calculations, Columbus vastly

underestimated the distance of a western route to Asia. Nevertheless, he set out enthusiastically to convince the

monarchs of Europe he was right in order to obtain funding for his journey. After a series of

rejections, Ferdinand and Isabella of newly united Spain decided to pay for Columbus' voyage. In October of 1492

he sighted land in what he believed to be Asia. Columbus would make four voyages across the Atlantic and seems

to have died not knowing that he had failed. 

Columbus did not actually discover anything, nor was he the first European to make this crossing. Nonetheless, his

journey is very important historically because he initiated a world-transforming encounter between two hemispheres

of this planet. There would be profound cultural, demographic, political and social consequences. 

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C. When it was realized that Columbus had not succeeded in finding a route to Asia, the quest did not end. North

Atlantic crossings increased as European explorers sought to exploit the wealth of the New World and continue to

find a way across it. The waters off the eastern coast of North America were teeming with fish and some men made

fortunes shipping salt-cured cod to Europe and the Caribbean. [12] Explorers such as Champlain from France

earned huge profits by sending beaver pelts back to Europe. But like many others, Champlain's motivation was not

merely conquest or profit for their own sake. The furs were used to fund his ongoing obsession--the discovery of a

western route to China. [13]

Use this space for notes

Watch the following video on Mr. Wood’s website- Columbus – Mankind the Story of us All http://css.history.com/shows/mankind-the-story-of-all-of-us/videos/mankind-the-story-of-all-of-us-columbus-sails-west

Watch the video linked to Mr. Wood’s website - Before Columbus documentary - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brSPQ7sUE84

- Beginning to 2:20, 45:15 – 47:40, 49:35- 52:40, 55:00- 57:30

Part II- The effects of the Columbian Exchange

EQ- PART II- WHERE WERE THE EFFECTS OF THE COLUMBIAN EXCHANGE?

V. The new connections between the Eastern and Western hemispheres resulted in the Columbian Exchange. 

After the voyage of Columbus, the two halves of the planet learned that each other existed. As networks of trade

and communication expanded to include both hemispheres, items from one side made their way over to the other

side in a process of exchanges that lasted several centuries. In the 20th century a historian named this process of

intentional and unintentional sharing the Columbian Exchange. [19] This sharing of items took place most

predominately in the following categories:

A. A significant part of the exchanges that took place after Columbus was biological in nature. Because of their long

history of contact with farm animals, Europeans were carrying microorganisms to which they had developed

immunities. The native Americans did not have these immunities and were thus highly susceptible to

the diseases caused by the microorganisms. [20] New encounters between Europeans and native Americans caused

the spread of viruses such as measles and small pox with catastrophic results. Natives died by the millions. In

central Mexico, pandemic diseases killed 60 to 90 percent of the population. When the Tlaxcalan people sided with

the Spaniards against the Aztecs, Tlaxcala paid a heavy price. The disease they caught from their Spanish allies

killed up to 1,000 of them daily, with a total of about 150,000 deaths. [21] In addition to smallpox and measles,

Europeans also inadvertently spread cholera, malaria, influenza, and bubonic plague in the New World. The

decimation of native Americans due to these diseases played a large role in the Spanish conquest of the mighty

Incan and Aztec empires. [22] Use this space for notes

Watch the video linked to Mr. Wood’s website - Before Columbus documentary - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brSPQ7sUE84

Watch from – 58:50 – 105:00Focus on the effect Horses and Pigs brought to the new world from Europe

Watch the same video from 105:00- 108:25Focus on the effects of diseases like Small Pox on the native population

Take notes on the following video- Smallpox Mystery- http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/smallpox-sci-

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B. The Columbian Exchange also diffused new crops from the Americas to locations throughout the

world. Potatoes were transplanted to places like Europe, Russia, and China. Because they produce heavier yields

than cereal grains and can be cultivated in higher altitudes, potatoes led to increased surpluses of food. About 25%

of the population growth in Afro-Eurasia between 1700 and 1900 can be attributed to the cultivation of

potatoes. [23] China, for example, experienced a rapid population growth after potatoes were widely cultivated there.

Tomatoes and hot chili peppers were also transplanted from their place of origin in South America to Afro-Eurasia.

Today, the cuisines we characteristically associate with Italy and Asia are unthinkable without tomatoes and hot

peppers, respectively. 

Some New World plants were cultivated as cash crops and exported to the Old World. The Europeans learned

about tobacco from the Native Americans. Although the natives did not use it recreationally, its use became widely

popular with Europeans in the New World and back home. In the English colony of Jamestown, tobacco leaves were

used as currency and the exporting of tobacco as a cash crop is credited with having saved colonial Virginia from

ruin. [24] A more important cash crop than tobacco was sugar. Indigenous to Southeast Asia, sugarcane was brought

to the Caribbean by the Spanish early on. The demand for sugar in Europe grew, as it was a more convenient and

potent sweetener than what was available to them. The Portuguese introduced the plantation system in Brazil to

grow sugarcane. Then in the early 17th century a discovery was made that dramatically increased the cultivation of

sugar. Plantation slaves discovered that molasses, a byproduct of the production of sugar that was often discarded,

could be distilled into alcohol. [25] This new product, Rum, meant that sugarcane could produce two highly profitable

products and had virtually no waste. Entire forests were cleared to grow sugarcane and the plantation system

proliferated across the Caribbean. This in turn created a tremendous demand for slaves. The cash crop of sugar--

and to a lesser extent tobacco--increased the slave trade of the Atlantic system. 

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C. Another aspect of the Columbian Exchange was the introduction of Old World domesticated animals to the New.

Europeans brought pigs, cows, sheep and cattle to the Americas as well as rodents like rabbits and rats. With wide

open spaces and virtually no natural predators, these animals quickly multiplied across the Americas; by 1700,

herds of wild cattle and horses in South America reached 50 million. [26] In North America, tribes like the Navajo

became sheepherders and began to produce woolen textiles. The abundance of cattle increased the amount of

meat in New World diets and provided them with hides. The introduction of horses had an even greater effect. They

dramatically increased the efficiency of hunters and warriors, and tribes like the Comanche, Apache, Blackfoot and

Sioux grained greater success in hunting the buffalo herds on the plains of North America. [27] Along side these

animals brought by Europeans, slaves brought new plants to the New World such as yams, okra, and black-eyed

peas. Soon they became common foods that took the place of most indigenous crops, except maize (corn). 

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E. The presence of the Europeans had negative effects on the environment of the New World. Now that trade was

global, there was an urgent need for a larger number of ships. Easily accessible forests in Europe had long since

disappeared, so Europeans looked to the seemingly unlimited timber of the New World for their shipbuilding needs.

Further contributing to this deforestation was the single cash-crop nature of the plantation system. Tremendous

profits could be made by converting huge tracks of land to sugar or tobacco production. This required clear cutting

forests which led to increased erosion and flooding. 

Deforestation allowed cattle and pigs, which Europeans had brought to the New World, to proliferate tremendously.

Unhindered by thick forests, livestock was free to roam and scavenge. They destroyed native farms, eating harvests

and trampling crops. Europeans who practiced subsistence farming also had a negative effect on the environment.

Instead of rotating crops, as they did in Europe where land was scarce, they practiced slash-and-burn agriculture in

the New World where land was abundant. 

Watch the video linked to Mr. Wood’s website - Before Columbus documentary - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brSPQ7sUE84Watch from 118:05 – 120:50 Timber and wood

Watch from 129:50 - 131:05 Effect of the Potato on Europe

Watch the video linked to Mr. Wood’s website - Before Columbus documentary - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brSPQ7sUE84

132:15 – 134:25 Luxury Goods- Tobacco and Sugar

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