1. The Columbian Exchange
Unit 5, December 7th and 8th

2. Before 1492 Two very different ecosystems Two difference disease pools
Two sets of culturally diverse people
Two sets of flora and fauna
Before Columbus crossed the Atlantic, the Eastern Hemisphere (that is Europe, Africa and Asia) and the Western Hemisphere (that is the Americas) were two very different ecosystems. These ecosystems had been developing in biological isolation for thousand and thousand of years. This meant that there were two different disease pools and two sets of flora and fauna, as well as two sets of culturally diverse peoples.

3. -- Christopher Columbus
The differences between the two hemispheres was often noted by those who were present at the time when Europeans were making their first incursions into the Americas.
*      Many Native Americans upon seeing Europeans and their animals for the first time were so shocked at what they saw that they did not know what to make of the invaders. Some thought the Europeans were gods, and when they saw men on horseback they were not sure if they were looking at two animals or one.
*      Europeans were equally impressed by the differences. Christopher Columbus wrote that “all the trees were as different from ours as day from night, and so the fruits, the herbage, the rocks, and all things.”
*      A Frenchman in Brazil in the 16th century wrote that America is so truly “different from Europe, Asia and Africa in the living habits of its people, the forms of its animals, and, in general, in that which the earth produces, that it can well be called the new world….”
“...all the trees were as different from ours as day from night, and so the fruits, the herbage, the rocks, and all things.”
-- Christopher Columbus

4. The Columbian Exchange
Exploration led to an enormous exchange of people, plants, animals, technology, and ideas that would change the lives of people in Asia, Europe, the Americas, and Africa.
Because this global interaction began with Columbus, it is called the Columbian Exchange
many aspects of the exchange were intentional, but other things, like diseases happened unintentionally

5. Effects of the Columbian Exchange
Exchange of pathogens – smallpox, syphilis, measles
Livestock – horses, cattle, chickens, goats, sheep
They roamed free and their numbers increased rapidly, leading to the extinction of certain plants and other animals
New crops – maize, rice, sugar, tobacco, cacao, bananas
an increase in food supply helped populations rise
Slavery emerged as many of the crops were labor intensive
There have been both negative and positive effects from the Columbian Exchange, but initially for Native Americans the consequences were devastating. By the time Columbus set sail, the people of the Old World held the distinction of being thoroughly diseased. By domesticating pigs, horses, sheep and cattle, they had infected themselves with a wide array of pathogens. And through centuries of war, exploration and city building, they had kept those agents in constant circulation. Virtually any European who crossed the Atlantic during the 16th century had battled such illnesses as smallpox and measles during childhood and emerged fully immune.

6. The Columbian Exchange
Squash
Avocado
Peppers
Sweet Potatoes
Turkey
Pumpkin
Tobacco
Quinine
Cocoa
Pineapple
Cassava
POTATO
Peanut
TOMATO
Vanilla
MAIZE
Syphilis
Trinkets
Liquor
GUNS
Olive Oil
COFFEE BEAN
Banana
Rice
Onion
Turnip
Honeybee
Barley
Grape
Peach
SUGAR CANE
Oats
Citrus Fruits
Pear
Wheat
HORSE
Cattle
Sheep
Pigs
Smallpox
Flu
Typhus
Measles
Malaria
Diptheria
Whooping Cough

7. The Trans-Atlantic slave trade
Existed in Africa before the coming of the Europeans
Portuguese replaced European slaves with Africans
They worked on Sugar cane and sugar plantations
First boatload of African slaves brought by the Spanish in 1518
275,000 enslaved Africans exported to other countries
Between 16th and 19th centuries, about 10 million Africans were shipped to the Americas