1. 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 …show more content…
the earth so hot that life could not exist there.” (Crosby 9) Additionally, works of the same age, such as Hippocrates, Galen, and Avicenna had “not a word to say about syphilis.” (Crosby 9) Because of this confusion as to where the New World should be placed in context of an Aristotelian Europe, the discovery of Indians led many Europeans to condemn them as “allies of the Devil.” (Crosby 10) The discovery of a race that differed from the most radical of all races, that being African-Americans in Africa, Europeans noted how the Bible made no mention of any American Indians. These Indians, according to Europeans, challenged their entire Christian ideological system because their entire way of life was seen as sinful in the eyes of God. For example, the Indians “practiced promiscuity, polygamy, incest, and sodomy,” forcing many Europeans to assume that Indians were “in league with Hell.” (Crosby 10) However, it is more important to note that the discovery of a New World challenged the entire Christian cosmogony. As described in the Bible, specifically in Genesis, Europeans believed that God created the known world in one week in one place, but the discovery of a new race of individuals challenged this institution in a radical sense because it contradicted Scripture. 2.
Crosby highlights the importance of blood types in understanding the “biological consequences of 1492” by noting how distinct the populations of North America differ from that in Europe. On page 22, Crosby goes into detail about how blood types do not often change on a continent where there is uniformity. “No change in training, food, climate or anything else can alter an individual’s blood type; and there is no way in which a people of blood type O, for instance, can suddenly start having great numbers of children of blood type B unless there has been an infusion of genetic material from outside the original group.” (Crosby 22) The blood type of the American Indians, according to Crosby, is unique from those of Europeans because people differ based on their origins. Because the ancestors of the Indians crossed the Bering Strait into America, their blood types differed from that of the Europeans. This had a huge impact on the biological consequences of 1492 because, as Crosby notes, “the isolation [of the American Indians in North America] not only hampered the growth of their civilizations, but also weakened their defenses against the major diseases of mankind.” (Crosby 31) Crosby notes how this isolation further distanced the gap between the Europeans and the Indians, one aspect of this being the different blood types of the two groups. This discrepancy would play out with the arrival of the disease, which was brought by Columbus and the other Europeans upon their …show more content…
arrival in the New World in 1492. 4.
Crosby, in his chapter regarding syphilis, addresses the controversy surrounding its origins. One theory that Crosby seems to point out is the notion that syphilis may have existed in pre-Columbian Europe. A piece of evidence that Crosby makes mention of is how “neither syphilis nor anything resembling it is mentioned at all in the documentation of the Columbian voyages written prior to the first epidemic of the pox in Europe.” (Crosby 137) This would seem to suggest that the disease had a somewhat presence in Europe, but Crosby refutes the claim, asserting that undocumented information is not a good enough reason to support this theory. One major theory that Crosby describes is the Unitarian theory, or the theory that syphilis evolved over time. The argumentation for this theory is heavily present in Crosby’s book, as he notes how the disease evolved and spread through the armies of Charles VII of France. Because syphilis is a highly transitive disease through sexual intercourse, the fact that many of Charles’s soldiers, following many battles, “engaged in the usual practice of rape and sack” around the mid-1490s, suggests this type of transformation of the disease. (Crosby
149) 5. Crosby notes in his chapter concerning New World foods and Old World demographics that “the number of human beings on this planet today would be a good deal smaller but for the horticultural skills of the neolithic American.” (Crosby 202) By saying this, it becomes evident that one of the reasons for the population increase in the New World, according to Crosby, concerned the food of the Old World. In fact, this is a major point that is thoroughly emphasized. Crosby notes how the “increase and improvement of the food supply [from the Old World]” contributed to this population boom, and, therefore, “an increase in the food supply will produce an increase of people.” (Crosby 167-168) But what kinds of foods from the Old World led to this population growth in Europe? The most important crops, according to Crosby, were maize and the potato. Just take the examples of Africa and Ireland. Crosby notes how “the rapid rise in African population following 1850 not only coincides with the spread of political stability and modern medical techniques – alleged characteristics of the growth of the European colonial empires – but also with the accelerated spread of maize, manioc, and the other American foods.” (Crosby 187-188) Likewise, Ireland has been most famed for its growth of potato, which, as Crosby points out, originated in the New World. All in all, food, while a heavy reason for the population growth in the Old World, was not the only reason for this population growth. There were other reasons to explain this growth of population. One such, as stated briefly above, was medicine. Additionally, “a decrease in the number and severity of wars; advances in medical science and hygiene; the establishment of stable governments over large areas; improvement in transportation, which permits rapid transfer of food from areas of surplus to areas of famine; and an increase and improvement of food supply” all contributed to a growth in the population of Europe (Crosby 167). All things set aside, however, Crosby seems to emphasize the fact that it was the impact of Old World crops that led to these advances in European society, and, thus, contributed to the unprecedented population growth in Europe. 6. After reading Crosby’s book, the biological interchanging between Europe and the Americans does support the notion of a “Columbian Exchange,” primarily because the effects of the interaction between the two world had both benefits and defects for both sides. In this sense, both sides profited and suffered. Most exclusively, the transfer of animals and plants is absolutely an example of the positive impact of such an exchange. On the other hand, the exchange of diseases is a clear sign of the negative effects. With the arrival of the Europeans in the New World, “the most deadly of the early epidemics in America were those of the eruptive fevers – smallpox, measles, typhus, and so on,” but the most deadly disease on the American Indian population would be smallpox. (Crosby 42) One of the earliest historians of the Americas, Oviedo, noted how the American Indian population of Santo Domingo originally started out with a population of a million Indians, but following the introduction of disease were reduced “in this year 1548 five hundred persons, children and adults, who were natives and are the progeny or lineage of those first.” (Crosby 45) Likewise, the impact of the Old World on the New World had ramifications that equally devastated the population of Europe. This was most commonly seen with “the French disease, or syphilis,” which, according to Ruy Diaz de Isla, “had its origin and birth from always in the island which is now named Espanola.” (Crosby 122-123) Despite the theory that syphilis had a minor presence in the Old World, it goes without saying that the impact of the disease had a far greater impact on the New World following its discovery. Crosby notes how the dispersal of the French armies of Charles VII of France in the 1490s following his invasion of Italy was a large factor in spreading of the disease, hence why some referred to it as the French disease. All in all, this example of disease is evidence that the impact of the discovery of the New World by Columbus in 1492 had a large, and negative, effect on both hemispheres of the world. Both the transfer of foods/animals and diseases show how there was a biological interchange between Europe and America, commonly referred to as the “Columbian Exchange.”
The disease was viewed as a black man’s disease due to its vast spread in the black race community. In this chapter, it is clear that the medical fraternity had formed opinion of the disease even before the start of the experiment. The theme of racial prejudice is brought out clearly in this chapter. The blacks are discriminated from the whites even after learning that syphilis can affect both races alike. The slaves received treatment like their masters just because of economic concerns and not because they were human like their masters. In chapter 3 “Disease Germs Are the Most Democratic Creatures in the World”, the writer points out that the germ theory changed the way syphilis is viewed in the society. It was clear that other emphasis such as sanitation, education and preventative medicine was necessary to combat the disease. The areas inhabited by the blacks were behind in healthcare facilities and service. In this chapter, the theme of unequal distribution of resources is seen. Whereas areas inhabited by the whites had better hospitals and qualified professionals to deal with the
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.
Encomiendas: An encomienda was a grant of Native American labor given to prominent European men in the Americas by the Spanish king. This grant allowed European men to extract tribute from natives in the form of labor and goods. The value of the grants was dramatically increased with the discovery of gold and silver in the Americas. The significance of this term is that although this system was eventually repartitioned, it initiated the tradition of prominent men controlling vast resources and monopolizing native labor.
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.
In 1492, Christopher Columbus was a self-made man who worked his way up to being the Captain of a merchant vessel. He gained the support of the Spanish monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella, for an expedition to the Indies. With the support of the Spanish monarchy, he set off to find a new and faster trade route to the Indies. Upon the arrival of his first voyage, Columbus wrote a letter to Luis de Santangel, a “royal official and an early supporter of his venture,” in February 1493 (35). The epistle, letter, entitled “Letter to Luis de Santangel Regarding the First Voyage” was copied and then distributed in Spain before being translated and spread throughout Europe. The Letter is held in such regard with the people as it is considered the first printed description of the new world. Through his description of the nature of the islands, Columbus decided the future fate of the islands. His description of the vast beauty of the nature around him, declares both the economic and nationalistic motivations for colonizing the new world.
The reactions of sheer shock and awe is used by the author to support the thesis by demonstrating the brilliance of the society that existed in the Americas before Columbus relative to to Europe and the society Columbus brought to America. An additional way Charles C. Mann supports his thesis is explaining why the natives were defeated if their society was so advanced. Precisely, he stated that disease was why the native society fell: “The People of the First Light could avoid or adapt to European technology but not European disease. Their societies were destroyed by weapons their opponents could not control and did not even know they had”(70). A common reason for disagreeing with the author’s thesis is that the natives could not have been so advanced if they were so easily dispatched by the European people. Fortunately, Charles C. Mann addresses this issue furthering his thesis that advanced society existed in the Americas before the arrival of Columbus by stating it was not the society of the Europeans that was more advanced but rather the uncontrollable spread of disease by the Europeans. A final way Charles C.
On August 3, 1492, Christopher Columbus departed from Palos, Spain to begin his journey across the Atlantic Ocean. This was the first of many voyages that allowed him to explore a New World where he was able to discover plants, animals, cultures and resources that Europeans had never seen before. The sharing of these resources and combination of the Old and New World has come to be known as the Columbian Exchange. During these explorations, the Europeans brought diseases such as malaria, yellow fever, typhoid and bubonic plague to the New World, wiping out entire Indian populations. There were also many other populations wiped out due to complications that came from this exchange. Were these explorations and the wiping out of entire populations worth the benefits gained by the exchange?
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
Columbian Exchange or the big exchange was a great exchange on a wide range of animals (Horses, Chickens, sheep, swine, Turkey), plants (Wheat, barley, corn, beans, tomatoes), people and culture, infectious diseases, and ideas, technology (Wheeled vehicles, iron tools, metallurgy) all these things happened between Native Americans and from Europe after the voyage of Christopher Columbus in 1492. Resulting in communication between the two cultures to initiate a number of crops that have led to the increase in population in both hemispheres, where the explorers returned to Europe loaded with corn, tomatoes, potatoes, which has become one of the main crops in Eurasia with the solutions of the eighteenth century. At the same time, the Europeans crops, cassava and peanuts to Southeast Asia with a tropical climate.
There have been circular arguments,internaionally, concerning whether Columbus discoverd or invaded the west Indies. through this essay I will explore all counter arguments for this particular topic. Its complex yet simple, one step at a time.
In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue. However, even after centuries later, little is truly known of the mysterious voyage and findings of the new world.1 By examining “Letter from Columbus to Luis Santangel”, one can further contextualize the events of Columbus' exploration of the New World. The letter uncovers Columbus' subtle hints of his true intentions and exposes his exaggerated tone that catered to his lavish demands with Spain. Likewise, The Columbian Voyage Map read in accordance with the letter helps the reader track Columbus' first, second, third, and fourth voyage to the New World carefully and conveniently. Thus, the letter and map's rarity and description render invaluable insight into Columbus' intentionality of the New World and its indigenous inhabitants.
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.
The history of Syphilis itself is one tangled and wrapped up in the histories of other diseases, social movements, and sciences. To...
sinfulness that had called down such epidemics as obvious evidence of God’s wrath, than to