Columbian Exchange Dbq Essay

The Columbian Exchange has been called the “greatest human intervention in nature since the invention of agriculture” (Grennes 2007). The exchange of diseases, plants, and animals lead to a global cultural and economic shift throughout the Old and New Worlds following Christopher Columbus' 'discovery' of the Americas in 1492. The Eastern Hemisphere saw an influx of raw materials, new staple crops, and the income from and production of growing crops that were too resource intensive for Europe and Asia. The Western Hemisphere saw large scale population shifts, massive devastation accompanying colonization, and a significant change in the ecosystem with the introduction of new, sometimes invasive, plants and animals. This 'exchange' had one

The Columbian Exchange is the exchange of plants, animals, food, and diseases between Europe and the Americas. In 1492, when Christopher Columbus came to America, he saw plants and animals he had never seen before so he took them back with him to Europe. Columbus began the trade routes which had never been established between Europe and the Americas so his voyages initiated the interchange of plants between the Eastern and Western Hemispheres, which doubled the food crop resources available to people on both sides of the Atlantic.

The Columbian Exchange was a major milestone in the diffusion of the New and Old World. In 1492, Columbus arrived in the Bahamas(2), where he first came in contact with Native Americans. There, both exchanged their cultures such as crops, animals, metals, and germs, hence the name, Colombian Exchange. This has brought about both positive and negative effects. While some negative impacts are exemplified by the near-genocide of Amerindians, the demerits are outweighed by the benefits of this historical exchange, including the international diversity of ethnicity, and increased global population.

Although explorers enslaved many Natives, they did many great things for the world that overcome slavery. Explorers spread many new ideas, contributed greatly in market economy, and were superior navigators.

From 1450-1750, there was a time of great exploration and advancement in technology that state consolidation and expansion. Inventions like the astrolabe, compass, and lanteen sail made these expeditions possible and more accessible than ever before. There were positive and negative effects of exploration and it greatly impacted the organization of regions throughout time. As networks of communication and exchange emerged, goods and the transmission of disease increased like smallpox, new discoveries of unkown territories were made such as the New World, and cultural interactions that spread religion like the Spanish converting Mexico to Christianity were becoming more and more evident.

Government continuously encouraged trading practices through the usage of coins/money and funding for infrastructure to simplify trade for the entire state. By using coins and money, trade was easier to negotiate as things could have monetary value. Great infrastructures like that of the Great Canal in China made travel across natural obstacles easier and

The centuries from 1400 to 1700 were monumental. They marked the first time people from all across the globe were connected socially, politically, and economically. A large contributor to this were the systems of international trade, heralded by advances in maritime technology. The Columbian Exchange, for instance, transported potatoes, corn, and silver from the New World to the Old, and it carried farm animals, vegetables, and slaves from the Old World to the New. Another example is the spice trade between Asia and Europe. This trade network is simulated in an interactive learning experience entitled “Become a Spice Trader.” The purpose of this activity is to educate the participant about the nature of international trade in a fun and engaging manner. I believe that it achieves this goal.

Three ID’s 1. Columbian Exchange- was an exchange of culture, metals, food, animals, plants, and diseases from New world between Europe. It started in the 15th century and lasted through the 17th century. Europe befitted the most and New World befitted the least from Columbian Exchange. 2.

The old world, specifically Europe shaped history; it was an age of exploration and expansion. Europe was one of the first civilizations and that gave them a head start to explore new lands, find new ideas, and domesticate more animals. The following sources support the fact that Europe Conquered the Americas, these documents include: The Columbian Exchange written by Nathan Nunn and Nancy Qian convey the message that through trading of animals, ideas, diseases, food crops, and population between the new world and the old world helped shape the civilization of Europe and gave Europe the push to conquer the Americas (Columbian exchange). Additionally, in the Guns, Germs, and

Imagine a place with no chocolate during halloween, or sweet tomato soup. The Columbian Exchange was beneficial to Both Old and New World. The things thats has a great impact on columbian exchange were the animals expanded the food supply, their was a increase in population, and new crops were introduced to both the worlds. “Due to plenty of meat and large areas for agriculture and grazing, the New world never experienced a famine. Abundance of food was the primary reason behind europeans coming to the Americans in large numbers.”

From 1500 to 1750 silver production in South America and Japan were at an all time high. Due to this new flow of silver economies began to change in response: economies began to become dependent on silver, and inflation and deflation have been more prevalent in regional economies. Socially the effect of the increase flow of silver has harbored a growing pessimism of silver, specifically, the excess use of silver and production of silver itself. Document 4,5,7 and 8 demonstrates that the increase flow in silver has caused economies to become more dependent of silver. Ralph Fitch in document 4 writes that “The Portuguese use this Japanese silver to their great advantage in China.”

One important commodity that was traded in the years of 1500 and 1800 that had a great impact is the Silver Circuit. Silver is on the list of being a high value luxury good. The flow of silver rapidly emerged globally on the

The Global flow of silver from mid 16th century to early 18th century while resulting in increase of wealth to merchants, eventually lead to social inequality through economic status. It also resulted in the weakening of states that supplied or received silver in vast quantities due to the increase of monetized economies.

With new trade routes, people were able to go to different areas to trade around. In 400 AD, the asian trade routes spread approximately 4,000 miles (Doc 5). People were able to trade many items, including cloth, grains, ivory, metals, spices, and many others. Coins were also a major part of trade. Each coin would weigh 8 grams (Doc 4). This made it easier for people to trade because someone could say that what they are selling is 16 grams, so you could just give the person 2 coins since each coin weighs 8 grams. Many coins were made to honor Gupta rulers’ wealth and accomplishment in war, arts, and politics (Doc

Many countries used the Silk Road trading route. The countries that were part of this were China, Southern Asia,India,Rome, and other countries. Civilizations used the Silk Road to trade valuable goods that they had for goods that other civilizations wanted from another goods they didn’t know about. Another reason the silk road changed civilizations was because other civilizations would get stronger because they had better material to use to expand in technology for a variety of things they used in their daily life.