Columbian_Exchange

The Columbian Exchange has had a major impact on Europeans and their newly found land of America. This exchange of products brought new life, bad and good to the Europeans and Americans. There were bad products that came out of the exchange like disease and slavery, but this was a two faces exchange; some of the good products that came out of the exchange were widespread crops and increase in livestock. Although there were some positive results of the Columbian exchange, they were not enough to be worth the damage the Columbian Exchange caused to the people, plants, and animals of the New World. Arguably the worst result of the Columbian exchange was the diseases it brought to the native people of the New World. These diseases include Smallpox, Measles, Chicken Pox, Malaria, Influenza, and Cholera, among many others. Not only did these diseases spread from the Europeans to the natives, but the natives passed Syphilis to the Europeans. It is estimated as many as 80-90% of the Indians died due to disease between 1492 and 1650. It is not known how many Europeans died of Syphilis, but most of the first ones infected died. However, the Europeans were not weakened nearly enough to stop their advance in the New World. The Native Americans could not protect themselves from the onslaught of disease in the same way they couldn’t stop the invading Europeans. After most of the Native Americans had been killed off by disease and conquerors the Europeans began to bring slaves in to work the large amount of land they now had access to. When most people think of slavery they think of the South in the United States, but the fact is only around 5% of the slaves brought to the New World when to the US. Virginia started importing slaves in 1619 and the practice didn’t end until the Civil War. Even then the discrimination started by the Columbian Exchange did not end. While it is true that slavery had existed long before the Columbian Exchange and still exists some places today, the exchange led to it spreading even farther creating a higher demand for slaves and therefore many more enslaved people than before. About 12 million slaves were sent to America, but the population grew after that so many millions of people lived and died in slavery for centuries. Not only did the Columbian Exchange bring disease, death, and slavery to the New World, it brought many persisting pests. Some of these are animals, some are plants; some brought on purpose, some accidentally. Tumble weeds, Wild Oats, and the Kudzu vine are among some of the plants brought to the New World. The Kudzu weed has overwhelmed many forests in Florida. Animals such as the brown rat, earthworm, and zebra mussels were also transported here. It is also believed that bed bugs, cockroaches, the House Fly, and many other pests came to be in America through the Columbian Exchange or at some time later. Even honeybees are not native to America. These imports have had lasting consequences on agriculture and economy in the Americas, as well as being a nuisance to everyday life. The Columbian exchange brought a great influx of new people, ideas, plants, and animals; some of them being negative, some positive, but all have had major ramifications and continue to influence our daily life. The sad truth is that although many new nations have arisen in the Americas, it took a great deal of destruction to achieve them. It should be remembered that there is no black and white when it comes to history and no event can be truly described as completely positive or negative, but the Columbian Exchange was all around a negative impact on America, especially when taken from the perspective of a Native American. The disease that ravaged the Indian population, the tortured slaves brought to toil in the fields, and the numerous pests not native to this land were all a result of the Columbian Exchange. The decisions of the conquerors or immigrants, continue to influence this region today.