preview

Columbian Exchange Dbq Essay

Decent Essays

After the discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus in 1492, this sparked the interests of the Columbian Exchange. This was a global network that allowed for the transfer of ideas, plants, animals, and diseases between America and the Old World. Although hindering the developments of societies around the world with diseases, the Columbian Exchange mostly aided these advancements with its trade of crops and silver and technological advances. The Columbian Exchange helped the advancements of societies internationally with the exchange of food. Food like maize and potatoes coming from America became staple crops throughout Europe. (Document 1) Europeans vastly depended on these foods so much that the Great Famine resulted in the failure of the potato crop in Ireland. Other traded items like sugar, tobacco, coffee and various spices benefitted both sides of the world. The New World gained new types of crops and the rest of the world like Europe and Asia obtained money from trade. Throughout the widespread of cultural diffusion, silver discovered in Mesoamerica was obtained and imported to Europe leading to economies based on money allowing more trade to be available. The New World produced around 85% of the world’s silver. This …show more content…

After the discovery of the New World, explorers expanded their knowledge of tools helping them measure longitude and latitude, and improved the compass. European architecture helped build new homes and ships in the New World leading to villages and towns. Ports and ships were constructed allowing more trade to be conducted. Bernal Diaz once wrote, “When we saw all those cities and villages built in the water, and other great towns on dry land… these great towns and cues seemed like an enchanted vision.” (Diaz, Document 5) The busy city of Tenochtitlan has become a great urban center in the heart of Mexico after the events of the Columbian

Get Access