Talia Marquez Period 2 Tragedy for the New World The Columbian Exchange was a widespread exchange that began after Christopher Columbus, a Spanish Explorer, discovered the new world in 1492. The Columbian Exchange was a worldwide redistribution of plants, animals, and disease all caused from the initial contact between the Europeans and Natives. The Columbian Exchange had a catastrophic effect on the New World. The biggest effect of the Columbian Exchange on the people of the New World was disease. Measles, chicken pox, small pox, yellow fever, malaria, influenza, and the common cold were all diseases brought from the Old World to America. Since the natives had never encountered these diseases, their bodies were not immune and able to fight them off. 90% of the population died off from this spread of disease. This mass killing was called the Great Dying. Although the Europeans wanted to take the Native Americans back to the Old World to be sold into slavery and others to work as slaves in the New World, not many were fitted to do so. Most Natives at the time were dying or very ill from all the disease the Old World brought to them, so they weren’t healthy enough to be slaves. Because of this, Europeans began taking people from Africa to work as slaves, starting the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade. Syphilis is one of the few diseases that may have found its way from the New World to the Old. Some Native American women were taken and forced to have sexual relations with the European men. This disease could have been transferred to the Old World as a result of sexual contact between European men and Native women. Outbreaks of syphilis occurred in European port cities during the mid 1500s, leading some to believe that the disease had been brought to Europe by men that were returning from the New World. There is evidence of syphilis in Latin America prior to 1492. However, the evidence is speculative and remains unresolved. The Columbian Exchange was one of the most significant events concerning ecology, agriculture, and culture in all of human history, but it greatly affected almost every society on earth, more negatively than positively. Lives were lost, families were torn apart, diseases spread and slavery was at its all time high.
Talia Marquez
Period 2
Tragedy for the New World
The Columbian Exchange was a widespread exchange that began after Christopher Columbus, a Spanish Explorer, discovered the new world in 1492. The Columbian Exchange was a worldwide redistribution of plants, animals, and disease all caused from the initial contact between the Europeans and Natives. The Columbian Exchange had a catastrophic effect on the New World.
The biggest effect of the Columbian Exchange on the people of the New World was disease. Measles, chicken pox, small pox, yellow fever, malaria, influenza, and the common cold were all diseases brought from the Old World to America. Since the natives had never encountered these diseases, their bodies were not immune and able to fight them off. 90% of the population died off from this spread of disease. This mass killing was called the Great Dying.
Although the Europeans wanted to take the Native Americans back to the Old World to be sold into slavery and others to work as slaves in the New World, not many were fitted to do so. Most Natives at the time were dying or very ill from all the disease the Old World brought to them, so they weren’t healthy enough to be slaves. Because of this, Europeans began taking people from Africa to work as slaves, starting the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade.
Syphilis is one of the few diseases that may have found its way from the New World to the Old. Some Native American women were taken and forced to have sexual relations with the European men. This disease could have been transferred to the Old World as a result of sexual contact between European men and Native women. Outbreaks of syphilis occurred in European port cities during the mid 1500s, leading some to believe that the disease had been brought to Europe by men that were returning from the New World. There is evidence of syphilis in Latin America prior to 1492. However, the evidence is speculative and remains unresolved.
The Columbian Exchange was one of the most significant events concerning ecology, agriculture, and culture in all of human history, but it greatly affected almost every society on earth, more negatively than positively. Lives were lost, families were torn apart, diseases spread and slavery was at its all time high.