The Consequences of 1492

The Consequences of 1492 Demographic Revolution Culture Interchange Political Transformations Economic Transformation A Revolution in Diet Re-dividing the World’s Labor

Demographic Revolution The Consequences of 1492 Demographic Revolution The most “ gigantic “ population changes the world has ever known. The Spanish touched off a biological holocaust that catastrophically depopulated the Caribbean island and Central America. Native people were geographically sealed off from European diseases:( smallpox, measles, diphtheria) Within the first 100 years of contact, over 90% of the huge native population of Central America & the Caribbean died (25 million). Collective germ warfare eliminated two-thirds of the native people within a few generations. Since Cortez conquest, Mexico did not regain its level of population until 1940. For every six people that crossed the Atlantic- five were African

The Consequences of 1492 Culture Interchange Immense population genetic and cultural intermingling to an extent the world has never known (mixing of European, African, and Native Americans). The New World was not only a battleground but a mating ground as well. Cultural borrowing (political, food ways, language, dress, music, rituals, religious beliefs). Evidence of this interpenetration of cultures is every where around us.

Political Transformation The Consequences of 1492 Political Transformation The first worldwide empires in the history of humankind and enlargement of the arena of conflict between European nations. The New World became an area where European nations fought each other for centuries, for possession of: lands, minerals, and control of native and enslaved populations. Results of colonization led to the rise of merchant fleets, armed navies, and large land armies to great scale.

Economic Transformation The Consequences of 1492 Economic Transformation The European discovery of huge deposits of gold and silver in Mexico and Peru. Indians and African labor primarily extracted these deposits of gold and silver. Europe’s supply of money increased eight times by the 1600’s. This expansion led to the quickening of trade ( silks and spices from the Far East, rice, sugar, coffee, and tobacco from the American plantations).

The Consequences of 1492 A Revolution in Diet Generation after 1492, European began to group large number of crops indigenous to the Americans ( potatoes, cocoa, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, peanuts, maize (corn), and green beans). Within 200 years corn and potatoes became the main source of protein in some parts of Europe. This increase in Europe’s food supply led to over population. The failure of the potato crop in the 1900’s led to mass immigration to America. The cash crops (sugar, coffee, and tobacco) became known as the “proletarian drug foods” the stimulants that killed hunger while giving rushes of energy.

Re-Dividing the World’s Labor The Consequences of 1492 Re-Dividing the World’s Labor The final chapter from the result of 1492 was the division of world laboring of people and the increase in slave labor. Where in Europe serfdom decreased rapidly from the 1500’s to 1700’s, in the Colonized New World, European enslaved American Indians and transported Africans in chains in vast numbers. Columbus even enslaved the Arawaks and took then back to Spain, thus starting the Atlantic slave trade. As European would call the discovery of the America’s a “great giant leap” towards progress it became the first steps in free trade institutions and systems of government.