Columbian Exchange Flashcards, test questions and answers
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What is Columbian Exchange?
The Columbian Exchange, also known as the Great Exchange, was a period of extensive cultural and biological exchange between the Americas and Europe that began after Christopher Columbus’s voyages to the New World in 1492. This exchange had a profound impact on both continents and changed the course of human history forever. From Europe, diseases such as smallpox and measles were brought to the Americas, leading to devastating epidemics among Native American populations. Europeans also brought livestock including cattle, pigs, sheep and horses which quickly spread throughout both continents. The domestication of these animals revolutionized farming practices in both regions. The Americas subsequently introduced several new crops that would become staples of European diets like potatoes, tobacco, maize (corn) and tomatoes. These foods had a lasting impact on agriculture around the world as they provided more nutritious sources of food with higher yields than traditional crops like wheat or barley. In addition to agricultural changes, the Columbian Exchange saw significant technological advances on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. In Europe, new techniques for mining silver were introduced while in America new weapons technologies were shared by Native Americans with Europeans. Overall, the Columbian Exchange was an incredibly important event in human history that allowed for rapid expansion of global trade networks and vastly increased intercontinental interactions between cultures across both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. Although it caused devastating losses among native populations due to disease outbreaks and warfare over resources; it ultimately shaped modern life as we know it today due to its major economic impacts on global markets as well as its influence over technology and cuisine around the world.