Essays on The Columbian Exchange

c. 1400 - c. 1600

The Columbian exchange moved plants, animals, culture, ideas, ​commodities, people, and diseases across the Atlantic in the late 15th and following centuries. Indigenous populations across the Americas were replaced by African slaves and European colonists.

Along with the people and animals of the Old World came their diseases. Such as: measles, mumps, smallpox, influenza, typhus, and whooping cough. Those infections spread as epidemics among Native American populations. The most known deadly disease that spread from the Americas to Europe was syphilis

Horses, pigs, goats, cattle, sheep, and several other species were brought to the New World. Those species adapted readily to conditions in the Americas and became a new sources of hides, wool, and animal protein. The turkey, guinea pig, and Muscovy duck were New World animals that were brought to the Old World.

The Americas farmers brought to the Old World such goods as: corn, potatoes, tobacco, cassava, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, peanuts, pumpkins, squashes, pineapples, and chili peppers.