Cultural Impact Of The Columbian Exchange

The Columbian Exchange was one of the most influential periods of time in American and world history. Food, plants, animals, metals and a numerous amount of diseases were all brought forth into the New and Old Worlds. The amount of goods and services that were sold and transferred during the years of the Columbian Exchange were uncalculatable. A lot of global change erected from the Columbian Exchange and with the exchange came a never ending connection between the Old and New Worlds that ran deeper than the ocean they had to travel across. There were many new cultural, social, political, and economic connections that were made between the Americas and the Caribbean to Europe, Asia, and Africa. People of different upbringings told stories.

Christians, Muslims, Catholics, and many other religions mingled and traded, which resulted in many new ideas and ways of thinking. The biggest cultural impact was the introduction of new foods. Prior to the Columbian Exchange, the Irish did not have potatoes, Italians did not have tomatoes, Spaniards did not have peppers, the Americas did not have cattle, chicken, or pigs and the Swiss did not have any chocolate. That means, if there was no Columbian Exchange, those four countries would be without arguably their most cultural and traditional food item. Ireland would not have baked potatoes, Italy would not have pizza or spaghetti. Spain would not have their spicy foods. America would not have its signature burgers, ham, bacon, or chicken. Switzerland would not have their amazing chocolate. Ireland’s new found love of potatoes had its pros and cons. The population skyrocketed with the potato because of its high calories, and ease of growing. People were able to live longer with the help of healthier foods. Four out of ten people living in Ireland had a diet of only eating potatoes. A draw back was that all potatoes were genetically identical. So, when the potato blight hit, Ireland lost at least 40% of its entire population. That was all courtesy of the New World. The Old World, specifically Spain, introduced horses to the Americas. Horses revolutionized traveling and trading. Merchants could get through their

With the uncalculatable amount of goods being exchanged, there is no other event in history to compare this to. The Columbian Exchange is unparalleled in the sense of the impact it had on the entire globe. The numbers of all of the grains like wheat and barley, crops like cotton an sugar, vegetables like beets and broccoli, weeds, fruits and luxuries were insane and the amount of money going back and forth was also significant with just the plants. Now if you include all the animals that were involved, horses, cattle, sheep, pigs, goats, chickens, and turkeys, the profit rises even higher. On another topic, the amount of precious metals tripled in Europe between the years of 1500 to 1650. Zacatecas, Viceroyalty of New Spain, and Potosi, Viceroyalty of Peru, were where a significant amount of the silver was coming out of and New Granada, Viceroyalty of Granada, was where most of the gold was coming from. The Americas were regulating 181 tons of gold and 16,000 tons of silver. With that said, between 1600-1650, sugar production, along with cotton, indigo, and rice, was 90-95% of the economy. The impact that the Columbian Exchange had on the economy was something the world will never see