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Columbian exchange its impact on europeans and indians
Columbian exchange its impact on europeans and indians
The columbian exchange effects on america
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AP U.S History: D.B.Q.
Columbian Exchange Prompt: “To what extent did the Columbian Exchange affect interaction between Europeans and natives among indigenous peoples in North America?”
As a result of the Columbian Exchange, the interactions between the Europeans and the native indigenous peoples of North America became, in most cases, increasingly tense and hostile as the effects of the exchange took its toll. At first, the introduction of the New World to the Old, and vice versa, was a mingling that proved positive to both groups, but as the Europeans grew increasingly dependent and even greedy of the New World, the natives became increasingly defensive of their home. This led to a shaky relationship throughout the Americas of the natives and the Europeans.
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Columbian Exchange had huge demographic effects on both the populaces of the Europeans and Native Americans. From about 1519 to the early 1600s, as Document 2 displays, the population of the Americas declined from about 23.5 million to a mere 1 million.
Over the course of barely a century, the population was approximately 0.4 percent of what it had been. As Document 2 also shows, disease played a role in the deterioration of the American population. In the artistic depiction, we see several natives afflicted with the disease smallpox. Smallpox was just one of the deadly diseases introduced to the indigenous peoples of America whom had no immunities to any Old World pathogens. It swept through and decimated entire cultures, and the natives dubbed it the “Great Dying.” Looking at the Europeans, their population was barely punctured by New World diseases, and instead, they experience tremendous population growth due to their interactions. In Document 3, it explains the result of the agricultural change of the Columbian Exchange and how American crops revolutionized diets and allowed people to work harder because they were well fed. In Europe, the foodstuffs of America were incredibly valuable- especially the carbohydrate-rich foods like potatoes and corns that helped Europe overcome famine and supported population growth. Document 3 also tells that potatoes were very
important in Europe. They could be left in the ground and helped the Europeans evade taxes, as well as prevent food shortages when armies invaded and raided for food- missing the potatoes underground- leaving the food for the people and therefore, supporting population stability. Because of the population increase among the Europeans, and the decrease among the natives of America, European settlers could easily plow and push natives back as they hungered for more land because the native population was weakened. As a result, the surviving natives became increasingly alarmed and threatened at European expansion and domination, heated at the slaughter of their cultures and peoples, and relations became tense as the natives became resentful at the disparity of race numbers. The Columbian Exchange also greatly affected the political and religious structures of both the European and Native Americans. As Document 6 and Document 4 express, Europeans brought with them their religious and economic ways and spread them to the Americas. Document 4 reads in a letter from King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, “Therefore, we command you, our governor, to compel the Indians to associate with the Christians… those who become Christians (are to be) better treated than others.” While the letter also informs the rightful treatment of Indians who are not Christians, the Indians were still forced to “associate” with Christians and if they converted to Christianity, they were treated better. The King and Queen of Spain were visibly trying to impress their religion on the natives. The encomienda system, created by the Spanish, granted conquistadors the towns of the native people they conquered. The conquistadors, who were known as encomenderos, taxed these native people and used them for labor on Spanish-owned estates in exchange for agreeing to provide safety through an established military and religious teachings. This took away the natives’ religious freedoms and imposed a political structure they did not understand. Most of the encomenderos used their influence and power to take more land from the natives, increase taxes, and ultimately force the natives into slavery. The cultures and ways of the natives were disregarded and they were treated as sub-human. The natives’ were seen as nothing more than a “donkey” or “horse”, disposable workers and the Europeans, or Spaniards, were the “masters” in their interactions. This “arrangement” also led to more hostility between the Europeans and Native Americans. The Europeans and natives of the Americas were also significantly affected with the mercantilism during the Columbian Exchange. This involved the trading of materials and goods from both sides, including technologies. The technologies exchanged also impacted both groups considerably. In Document 5, an artistic depiction is shown of a battle between the natives and Europeans. The Europeans had considerably better weapons than the natives. Unlike the natives who had obsidian knives, sticks, and the bow and arrow, the Europeans had strong blades of steel, and guns as represented in Document 5. This allowed them an upper hand when it came to technology over the natives in war. Impressed, the Natives soon received these guns and gladly exchanged them so that they could dominate hunting grounds and their rivals. The Europeans had an abundance of weapons and felt that trading them for Indian goods such as labor or crops was more than its worth. Europeans used the natives’ fascinations with firearms and weapons to exploit them. Europeans had such an advantage dealing in and making manufactured goods, that Natives became dependent on them for stronger weapons, thus allowing the Europeans to receive more for the goods. The native’s had no real view on the land dealings and such, and undervalued the trades they were making with the Europeans who were getting much more than what they were putting in. Before long the natives’ were, unknowingly, selling most of what they had for the gadgets of the Old World, and the Europeans were dominating their lands. This too, led to future hostilities, involving territorial rights.a In conclusion, the extent the Columbian Exchange had on the interactions between the native peoples of the Americas and the Europeans was that it led to precarious and outright hostile relationships in most cases, and the effects of those tense relationships still linger today, having produced the political, religious, and economical norms we are so used to. Both groups’ lives were changed and would never again be the same after 1492.
The Columbian exchange was the exchange of goods and products that occurred when the Europeans came to America. Some of the items exchanged included potatoes and tomatoes, which originated in America, and wheat and rice, which originated in Europe. Because of this exchange, certain dishes are possible to be made. For example, tomatoes are a popular ingredient in Italian dishes, but they originated in America. Because of the Columbian exchange, Italians were able to adapt tomatoes to be included in their dishes. Similarly, there are many dishes which also cannot be possible without the exchange. This will go in-depth into a few dishes and see if they could be made without the Columbian exchange.
In Alfred J. Crosby’s book, The Columbian Exchange, the author examines the impact of the New World on the Old World, but also the impact the Old World had on the New World. One key distinction Crosby notes is how the discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus challenged the intellectual systems of Christianity and Aristotelianism. Most notably, the discovery of a world that was, in fact, “new” was so contradictory to scholarly work of the past, such as Aristotle or found in the Bible, that assumptions were made on where to fit the New World into a Christian and Aristotelian world. For example, previous findings under Aristotle, which were still utilized into the 15th Century, had “quite logically supposed the equatorial zone of
As we all know from the memorable song, in 1492 Columbus sailed to find the New World, commonly known as the Americas. Many idolize Columbus for his accomplishment in colonizing the Americas and starting the Columbian Exchange. The Columbian Exchange is the sharing of plants, animals, diseases, human populations, technology, and ideas between the Western and Eastern Hemispheres as a direct result of Columbus’ arrival to the Americas. However, we often oversee the downfalls of the Columbian Exchange. Some consequences of the exchange are the spread of disease to the Native people and settlers, the destruction of the Native population, and the disappearance of the Natives custom’s, beliefs, and way of life.
Nunn, Nathan, and Nancy Qian. "The Columbian Exchange: A History of Disease, Food, and Ideas." Journal of Economic Perspectives. Yale University, 2010. Web. 12 Oct. 2013. .
Columbian Exchange, which also call the Grand Exchange, is an exchange of animals, crops, pollution (European and African), culture, infectious diseases and ideology between the eastern and western hemisphere in 15th and 16th centuries. Alfred W. Crosby first proposed this concept in his book “ The Columbian Exchange”, which published in 1972.
The author’s thesis is that before the arrival of Columbus and European culture in 1492, advanced society and culture already existed in the Americas that was not of the barbaric nature. This is clear when upon observing the author’s reasons for writing the book: “Balee’s talk was about ‘anthropogenic’ forests-forests created by Indians centuries or millennia in the past-a concept I’ve never heard of before. He also mentioned something that Denevan had discussed: many researchers now believe their predecessors underestimated the number of people in the Americas when Columbus arrived...Gee, someone ought to put all this stuff together, I thought. It would make a fascinating book”(x). Charles C. Mann is stating that upon learning the impressive
“As European adventurers traversed the world in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries they initiated the “Columbian Exchange” of plants, animals, and diseases.”(P. 26). The Columbian Exchange refers to a period of exchanges between the New and Old Worlds. The exchange of plants, animals, diseases and more modernized technology, beginning after Columbus landing in the Americas in 1492. It lasted through the fifteenth and sixteenth century. Domesticated animals such as cattle, horses, sheep and pigs were introduced to the Americas. The Americas introduced to Europe many new crops such as potatoes, beans, squash, and maize. In time Native people learned to raise European livestock and European and Africans planted American crops. This was the positive effect of the encounter and it was largely responsible for the doubling of the world’s population in the next three hundred years. There were also many negative effects to the “Columbian Exchange” A major consequence was the spread of disease in the New World. Diseases carried by Europeans and Africans devastated the population of the Americas. As Europeans traveled through the Americas epidemics came with them. Typhus, diphtheria, malaria, influenza, cholera, and smallpox killed many of the native people. One example was
The Columbian exchange was the widespread transfer of various products such as animals, plants, and culture between the Americas and Europe. Though most likely unintentional, the byproduct that had the largest impact from this exchange between the old and new world was communicable diseases. Europeans and other immigrants brought a host of diseases with them to America, which killed as much as ninety percent of the native population. Epidemics ravaged both native and nonnative populations of the new world destroying civilizations. The source of these epidemics were due to low resistance, poor sanitation, and inadequate medical knowledge- “more die of the practitioner than of the natural course of the disease (Duffy).” These diseases of the new world posed a serious
What are the most common things associated with the exchange and how did they influence cultures on both sides of the Atlantic?
Native Americans and Europeans were the begging of the new world. Their differences are more than similarities, whether by the religion, culture, race, and gender. Native Americans and European spoke two different languages, and lived in two different ways. The reason why Native Americans were called Indians, because when Columbus landed in America he thought that he was in India, so he called them Indians. Native American were nomadic people, some of them were hunter and some were farmers. Europeans were much more developed than Native Americans, and had more skills. Also, there were differences in holding positions between Native American women and European women. The cultural differences led to a bloody bottle
The discovery of America by Columbus, in 1492, has long been heralded as a major turning point in world history. It is not only a turning point for European world history, but also a turning point for the history of peoples indigenous to North America. The native populations in North America held equal claims to their lands and the way in which they lived. With an influx of Europeans into the new world it was inevitable that a clash of culture between them would surface. Among the native populations to have contact with the Europeans was the Seneca.
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 Colombian Exchange was an extensive exchange between the eastern and western hemispheres as knows as the Old World and New World. The Colombian exchange greatly affects almost every society. It prompted both voluntary and forced migration of millions of human beings. There are both positive and negative effects that you can see from the Colombian Exchange. The Colombian Exchange explorers created contact between Europe and the Americas. The interaction with Native Americans began the exchange of animals, plants, disease, and weapons. The most significant effects that the Colombian Exchange had on the Old World and New World were its changes in agriculture, disease, culture, and its effects on ecology.
During the numerous years of colonization, the relationship between the English settlers and the Native Americans of the area was usually the same. Native Americans would initially consider the settlers to be allies, then as time passed, they would be engaged in wars with them in a struggle for control of the land. This process of friendship to enemies seemed to be the basic pattern in the majority of the colonies.
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