1. The Columbian Exchange
Mr. Condry’s Social Studies Class

3. Before 1492 Two very different ecosystems
Two sets of culturally diverse peoples
Two sets of flora and fauna
Two different disease pools

4. These ecosystems had been developing in biological isolation for thousand and thousand of years.
This meant:
two different disease pools
two sets of flora and fauna
two sets of culturally diverse peoples.

5. “...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

6. Two biological ecosystems interchanged to create a new world ecology.

7. When Christopher Columbus brought these two hemispheres (these two very different worlds) in contact with one another by crossing the Atlantic in 1492, he effectively brought together two biological ecosystems which then interchanged over the years to create a new world ecology. The development of this intermixed world ecology had profound consequences for humans.

8. According to historian Alfred Crosby, the exchange of plants, animals and pathogens between the two hemispheres was biologically “the most spectacular thing that has ever happened to humans," and he coined the phenomenon the Columbian Exchange.

9. An Exchange of Pathogens
The smallpox virus

10. Fighting Pathogens
People of the old world became fully immune to most diseases by:
domesticating pigs, horses, sheep and cattle, they had infected themselves with a wide array of pathogens.
centuries of war
Exploration
city building

11. A Demographic Collapse
Aztecs afflicted with Smallpox
In Mexico alone, the native population fell from roughly 30 million in 1519 to only 3 million in 1568.
Modern-day victims of smallpox

12. Old World Diseases Some European diseases introduced to the New World:
Smallpox
mumps measles
whooping cough
cholera, gonorrhea
yellow fever
influenza.

13. Livestock

14. Livestock Concerns
The first contingent of horses, cattle, chickens, dogs, sheep and goats arrived with Columbus on the second voyage in The animals, preyed upon by few or no American predators, troubled by few or no American diseases, and left to feed freely upon the rich grasses, roots and wild fruits of the New World, reproduced rapidly.

15. A Plague of Sheep
Led to the extinction of certain plants, animals, and Native Americans

16. Chickens and Eggs
Considered one of the greatest gifts from the Spaniards because they were plentiful.

17. The Cowboys of the Americas
Vaquero
Gaucho
Cowboy
Llanero

18. Horses and other livestock
Horses were valued for the many tasks, but especially for transportation
Donkeys, oxen and mules were used as pack animals
Once the animal died they could be used for leather and other goods.

19. The greatest impact of the Columbian Exchange was the exchange of different food crops.
Sweet Potatos
Potatos
Cassava
Wheat

20. The Exchange of Plants and Animals
Originally from the Western Hemisphere
Potato
Maize (corn)
Manioc (cassava, tapioca)
Sweet potato
Tomato
Cacao (chocolate)
Squash
Chili peppers
Pumpkin
Papaya
Guava
Tobacco
Avocado
Pineapple
Beans (most varieties, including phaseolus vulgaris)
Peanuts
Certain cottons
Rubber
Turkeys
Originally from the Eastern Hemisphere
Sugar
Olive oil
Various grains (Wheat, rice, rye, barley, oats)
Grapes
Coffee
Horses
Cattle
Pigs
Goats
Sheep
Chickens
Various fruit trees (pear, apple, peach, orange, lemon, pomegranate, fig, banana)
Chick peas
Melons
Radishes
A wide variety of weeds and grasses
Cauliflower
Cabbage

21. An Increase in Food Supply Helped Populations to Rise

22. Maize/Corn Increased food supply around the world.
China more than doubled in population due to the new American food crop

23. Sugar, Tobacco and Slavery

24. Sugar
Old world crop
Thrived in tropical climate of the Caribbean and northeastern Brazil.
Increased the demand for the Atlantic slave trade to 9.3 million

27. MAP 26.2 The Atlantic slave trade, 1500-1800.

28. The Columbian Exchange

29. The effects of the Columbian exchange are still with us today.
Bit by bit, we are becoming more homogenized,
and the world is becoming smaller.