European_Expansion

INTR 2012 Food, Frontiers and International Relations Semester 1, 2011 First Essay Question What do you understand by the ‘Columbian exchange’' Why do authors like Crosby and Diamond argue that it was a fundamental or underlying cause of the economic and military ascendancy of Europeans (and Europeans overseas) over the rest of the world which peaked around the 19th century' What are the major strengths and limitations of this line of argument' Columbian Exchange can be defined in as many ways as people possibly can in relation to an exchange of non-native plants, animals and diseases between Europe, Africa, and the Americas from 1492 through to modernity. Colombian exchange is the leading event amongst the most significant events in the history of the modern world. It is some times cited as the cause of Atlantic slavery and at the same times gave rise to American colonies which eventually led to the creation of the United States of America. This essay is going to talk about the interaction of Europeans and indigenous of the new worlds and how this interaction has transformed both worlds. In particular, it will investigate the consequences of biological and ecological exchange in the decline of indigenous cultures and natural populations. Many people including authors like Crosby and Diamond believe that, this revolutionary phenomenon has its role in the economic and military ascendancy of Europeans either within their continent or abroad. The paper will touch on the long term impacts of the Columbian Exchange on Americas and Africa through trade and imperialism. The first part of the essay will try to explain what Colombian exchange actually means and how it happened, it will identify some of the crops and animals exchanged between Europe the old world, and Americas one of the new worlds. The subsequent paragraphs will dwell on how Colombian exchange paved the way for colonisation, dispossession, mercantilism, slavery, pandemic and many other negative aspects of the earlier globalisation. [1]Columbian Exchange was a phenomenon or strategy that involved the diversification of peoples, plants, animals, microbes and point of views between the Old and the New Worlds, this was the main motivation during the period of exploration and settlement in new lands. These exchanges impacted social, economic and cultural diversity. Around 15th century through to 17th century within Europe, exploration became a significant part of life. Numerous explorers left the continent to find a faster trade route to Asia. Asian spices were very desirable along with luxury items such as, jewellery gems, silk and gold. Because of the quest for New World, many explores ventured out across the Pacific Ocean, they became adamant with founding land and gaining wealth, [2]Columbian Exchange is one of the most momentous implications of the epoch of Exploration and the First Global era, it was a period of premeditated imperial advance and Europeans hunt for wealth, it is also known as ecological imperialism or biological expansion of Europe. Some historians depicted this period as the age of dramatic diffusion of resources which has had produced a diverse assortment of resources for both old world and new world. The encounter between the two worlds has impacted the entire global societies, both positively and negatively. The exchange of crops and livestock between the old world and new world is one of the central themes carried by the Colombian exchange phenomenon. Wealthy Europeans craved for spices and rare materials that could not be probably found in Europe.[3]The prime motivation for opening the new world was the need to find an alternative sea routes to Africa and/or Asia after the fall of Constantinople reduced the supplies of spices and silks from China and India, process of Colombian exchange therefore begun between Europe and Caribbean around 1492 when Christopher Columbus’ first voyage to South America arrived in the region of Caribbean.  Some plants and crops which were main part of the Colombian exchange include maize, potatoes, tomatoes, cocoa, vanilla, yams and beans. Europeans were amazed by the strange animals they found in America which they had never seen before such as the llama and the buffalo, indigenous people of the new world were also flabbergasted by the new animals brought to them by Europeans, for example, horses and cows were such big and strong animals, yet obedient to the orders of man, ox is used to plough a land without any resistance. Overtime, horse became an important animal to people of the new world, it enabled the Indian to kill more animals in the bush then they needed for themselves and their families consumptions, hence the surplus could be used for exchange to buy other goods that they don’t have. It was quite incredible how the two worlds have affected each other, the exchange of ideas; technology, maladies, livestock and agriculture have forever changed these two worlds[4]. European powers which were the direct beneficiaries of the Colombian exchange grasped this opportunity and used it to strengthen their global accession. . Colombian exchange spurred mass migration, a huge number of European settlers lured by the promise of a new and better life swamped America. The transfer of foodstuff from continent to continent greatly contributed to population explosion worldwide specially the new world and the old one[5]. From 1400 to 1900 Atlantic Ocean was the major artery, through which people and goods flowed between Europe, Africa, and the Americas. These communications and exchanges transformed European, African, and American societies and led to the creation of new peoples, cultures, economies, and ideas. Some kingdoms, empires, economies, and trade in the Atlantic world flourished owing to the European ambitions to expand[6]. The rise of tropical plantation systems in the Caribbean and some other parts of the region was one of the significant effects of Europeans expansion. Sugar became one of the vitals crops that have contributed to the European industrialization because of its high-yielding characteristics and a cheap source of energy. Hence, amongst the first modern and global commodities, sugar was unprecedentedly consumed a lot by the European working class. Sugar did not only become a centrepiece of modern diets but also a cause of Atlantic slave trade. Shortage of labour to grow cash crops on the tropical plantations in the Caribbean and Americas led to coerced rather than free labour, the triangular trade between Europe, Africa and America left Europe and North America wealthy and Africa impoverished and frail. From modest beginnings in the Canary Island, European plantations extended into more organised and heavily capitalised enterprise, plantations owners gradually replaced Native American workers with servitudes, African slaves. Such processes of food globalisation changed local economies into global economies or international trading systems. Slave trade intensified as the demands for European goods increased in Africa whereas the relative demands for slaves increased in America. Slave trade became a European affair because of the increased need for production forces, considering the continuous development of the economic life throughout Europe and America. Owners of the plantations relied heavily on African slave traders to ensure their large scale sugar production, each year tens of thousands of slaves are shipped across Atlantic to American plantation, this largely reduced African population[7]. The study of slavery and more broadly of the repopulation of Americas shows how Atlantic slave trade impacted the creation of the new worlds, especially the Americas, and disrupted African way of live. Like many other migrants, Black Africans did not exist initially in Caribbean and North America, the aftermath of Colombian exchange or the trans-Atlantic trade gave rise to the contemporary African American in the US. Without Colombian exchange and European imperialism, the whole world including Africa would have taken different trajectory of civilisation and modernity. The contemporary generation would be enjoying uniqueness instead of homogeneity as the trajectory taken by the global economic development. By and large, slave trade did prove to be an important factor in the evolution of Europe, it was one of the basic components of the emergence of capitalism as it contributed to the evolution of large scale production. [8]The establishment of colonial empires in the new worlds transformed Europe in many ways; new wealth from the new worlds, as well as dramatic indulgence in overseas trade, drastically changed the economic atmosphere of Europe. Those two aspects mentioned above collectively instigated a wave of new business and trade practices in Europe during the 16th and 17th centuries. They are considered as the root of today’s global economy known as capitalism. Impacts of Colombian exchange defined new societies and reshape the social structure of old ones. Kings and emperors in Europe increased their sphere of influence as they try to accumulate wealth. During this time, nations of Europe adopted a new economic policy known as mercantilism; it was an economic practice in which a country would do everything possible to acquire more wealth, preferably, in form of gold and silver. The same colonies that play a role of a supplier also provided a market for European finished goods. This opportunity enabled the European nations to build strong army or navies and purchase vital goods required for even more global influence. It also helped European monarchs expand their sphere of influence and became powerful rulers. Such opportunity was not only for European monarchs and nobles, but also for working class as well, people pooled their capitals to make more money by venturing overseas. This kind of trade practices went hand in hand with colonization, [9]The early modern period was also an era of political consolidation, population growth and economic expansion proved somehow unsettling, monarchs gradually confronted new challenges from the nobles and/or the rising middle class in Europe. Merchants who made used of this commercial globalisation accumulated great wealth and started seeking a forum to voice their political aspiration. Kings and emperors opted to centralise authority at the expense of their rivals. The secret to the ascendancy of Europe, specially the Western Europe as the world's influencing region was its leading in economic and military technologies. Its front to intensive regional warfare enabled Europeans to surpass the rest of the world between 1500 and 1900. Other factors which had also contributed to the possibility of European hegemony were the land and maritime accessibility of African, Eurasian and American worlds. They occupied the fringes of Africa and Asia as they were made known to them as a result of exploration. A need for allies as well as a quest for raw materials were also propulsive factors, this global food diffusion happened in favour of European people either in the old world or in the new world. As Europeans manifest their global conquest, none of the factors discussed above worked exclusively independently of the others. Rather, they act interdependently to promote the ascendancy of European explorers or conquerors. Military superiority, and especially naval superiority, may have been particularly imperative for smoothening the progress of first the arrival and then the survival of European navies along the maritime fringe of African, Eurasian and Americas waters. The military and economic supremacy of Europeans both in the old and new worlds could not be contained by the rest of the world during those periods. [10]As the process of Colombian exchange continues, European communicable diseases devastated indigenous populations. Christopher Columbus and his men invaded the Caribbean with their crops and animals in multiple trips to the region. Diseases were just as much part of the Columbian Exchange as goods and food. This component of the Columbian Exchange had a tragic impact on many Natives around the world. Europeans infectious diseases were more devastative to the native inhabitants of the New World than their superior weapons. The new world populations lacked natural immunity and/or resistance to the new diseases. The diseases Europeans brought with them, which included smallpox and measles, led to the deaths of millions of Native Americans as well as African slaves. Although slaves brought some of the tropical diseases from Africa to Americas, majority of the infectious diseases still import to the region from Europe. Most if not all of the domesticated animals and plants come with diseases in form of parasites or pathogens. According to some historians like Robert B. native populations probably declined about 90 percent during the first century after contact[11]. Some of the ecological Imperialists argue that the displacement of the native peoples of the temperate zones of the new world by European peoples was not only a result of diseases and guns, but also the domesticated animals. Old World livestock did incredibly well in the new world than they would be expected; Europeans animals and plants increased and occupied vast areas of lands[12]. In conclusion, the periods covered in this assignment, the scale and trends of historical changes around the globe were fundamentally transformed. Colombian exchange started as western European empires scrambling over dominancy within Europe stretched right across the globe in search of wealth and power. Tropical plantation in the Americas, especially sugar plantation, was the motivating force behind the transatlantic slave trade. It drained sub-Saharan Africa of its most productive labourers, causing demographic stagnation, and spurred devastating spirals of wars and upheavals across much of the continent in search of captives for trade. In the Americas, social relations in food and agriculture underwent profound changes, the demographic catastrophe caused by warfare, enslavement, and epidemic diseases introduced by Europeans caused a sharp devastation in both indigenous populations and the amount of cultivated arable land. Thus, Columbian Exchange explains why European nations and their dominos are the wealthiest and most powerful in the world, while Africa remained undeveloped and West Indian nations disappeared. Some of the heated political arguments between the third world and the first world today are scars caused by the historic events like the Colombian exchange, every global issue tend to instigate a blame game between both worlds. List of Reference Books Jeffrey M. Pilcher, Food in World History, Routledge Taylor and Francis Group, New York and London, John Fitzpatrick, Food, Warfare and the impact of Atlantic capitalism in Aotearoa/New Zealand, John Huxtable Elliott, Empires of the Atlantic World: Britain and Spain in America 1492-1830, Yale University Press, Effects of Global Contact: the Colombian exchange, Thomas Benjamin, the Atlantic world: Europeans, Africans, Indians and their shared history, 1400-1900, Cambridge University Press, 2009, pp. 3-16 Web Documents Alfred Crosby, Ecological Imperialism: The Biological Expansion of Europe, 900 – 1900, ecobooks.com, http://www.ecobooks.com/ Barry Vale, The rise of European empires up to 1914: Europe and imperialism before the First World War, http://www.suite101.com/content/the-rise-of-european-empires-up-to-1914-a79495#ixzz1IqphhCuu Leigh Goessl, Origins & Firsts in History: How the Columbian Exchange transformed society, Helium, Inc. All rights reserved. 2008, viewed 11/04/2011. http://www.helium.com/items/1275116-how-the-columbian-exchange-transformed-society. Lynn Gemina, Columbian Exchange and Global Trade, http://www.erschools.org/Teachers/gumina/guminaweb/columbian_exchange.htm, viewed 12/04/2011 Megaessays.com.The Colombian Exchange, 2001 - 2011 Mega Essays LLC, http://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper-member/3300.html, viewed on 7/04/2011. Teachers2.wcs.edu, Effects of Global Contact: the Colombian exchange, http://teachers2.wcs.edu/high/rhs/jims/Shared%20Documents/Honors%20World%20History%201st%20Semester/15%20section%205.pdf Tony Dunnell, Columbian Exchange Diseases – Latin America & the Old World, May 27, 2010, suite101.com, Insightful writers. Informed readers, http://www.suite101.com/content/columbian-exchange-diseases--Latin-American--the-old-world-a241749#ixzz1JQezDgVR viewed 12/04/2011. William R. Thompson, The military superiority thesis and the ascendency of Western Eurasia in the world system, Journal of World History Vol. 10, No. 1, 1999 University of Hawai'i Press, viewed 11/04/11, http://www.jstor.org/pss/20078752. ----------------------- [1] Leigh Goessl, Origins & Firsts in History: How the Columbian Exchange transformed society, Helium, Inc. All rights reserved. 2008, viewed 11/04/2011. http://www.helium.com/items/1275116-how-the-columbian-exchange-transformed-society. [2] John Fitzpatrick, Food, Warfare and the impact of Atlantic capitalism in Aotearoa/New Zealand, pp 1-18. [3] Barry Vale, The rise of European empires up to 1914: Europe and imperialism before the First World War,  http://www.suite101.com/content/the-rise-of-european-empires-up-to-1914-a79495#ixzz1IqphhCuu [4] Megaessays.com.The Colombian Exchange, 2001 - 2011 Mega Essays LLC, http://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper-member/3300.html, viewed on 7/04/2011. [5] Teachers2.wcs.edu, Effects of Global Contact: the Colombian exchange, http://teachers2.wcs.edu/high/rhs/jims/Shared%20Documents/Honors%20World%20History%201st%20Semester/15%20section%205.pdf [6] Thomas Benjamin, The Atlantic world: Europeans, Africans, Indians and their shared history, 1400-1900, Cambridge University Press, 2009, pp. 3-16 [7] Jeffrey M. Pilcher, Food in World History, Routledge Taylor and Francis Group, New York and London, pp. 31-33. [8]Lynn Gemina, Columbian Exchange and Global Trade, http://www.erschools.org/Teachers/gumina/guminaweb/columbian_exchange.htm, viewed 12/04/2011 [9] William R. Thompson, The military superiority thesis and the ascendency of Western Eurasia in the world system, Journal of World History Vol. 10, No. 1, 1999 University of Hawai'i Press, viewed 11/04/11, http://www.jstor.org/pss/20078752. [10] John Huxtable Elliott, Empires of the Atlantic World: Britain and Spain in America 1492-1830, Yale University Press, 2006, pp. 64-65. [11] Tony Dunnell, Columbian Exchange Diseases – Latin America & the Old World, May 27, 2010, suite101.com, Insightful writers. Informed readers, http://www.suite101.com/content/columbian-exchange-diseases--Latin-American--the-old-world-a241749#ixzz1JQezDgVR viewed 12/04/2011. [12] Alfred Crosby, Ecological Imperialism: The Biological Expansion of Europe, 900 – 1900, ecobooks.com, http://www.ecobooks.com/