Wednesday, November 5, 2014

A World of Inequality all the Way Back to 1492

The Colombian Exchange
The Colombian exchange is the exchange of diseases, food crops, populations (people and animals), and cultures between the New World and Old World after the discovery of the Americas by Christopher Columbus in 1492. The Colombian Exchange began when Christopher Columbus first arrived in America in 1492. He had brought horses and other animals and food with him that were new to the Indians. This began the exchange because the Europeans were bringing over goods to the Natives while the Native were also trading things with the Europeans. Both the Americas and the Europeans had begun the exchange of goods which soon led into the exchange of diseases and people along with the plants. animals, and food. The New World (the Americas) however didn't benefit as much as the Old World (Europe, Asia, and Africa)  did form this exchange.


The Old World had more benefits from this exchange then the New World. They received cash crops from the Natives that lived in the Americas. Some of these cash crops were sugar and tobacco. These were very valuable to the Europeans because they could not grow this on their own at the time, so there value was ranked highly. There was a demand for theses crops by the people because they needed theses crops that they hadn't known about. Also they could starts growing them in Europe once they got them from the Natives. The Natives also received crops like bananas, coffee beans, and grapes but the suffering was larger then the profit form the goods they received. 

The Great Dying
The New World suffered through this exchange. The Europeans and others were bringing diseases with them to the New World hen they came. The New World had never experienced theses symptoms and diseases before. All of theses things were new to them. So they didn't have experience with curing them. The Old World kept on bringing new diseases every time they came. They tried to stop people from coming once they found out that the people from the Old World were causing it. However, they didn't have the power to stop people from sailing and settling on their land. This lead to the Great Dying. The Natives went through suffering like aching bones, small pox, burning chest, and high fever. Typical Native American societies lost 90% of there population in the years following Christopher Columbus's expedition.


Triangular Trade

This Colombian Exchange is also know as the unequal exchange because of the suffering in the New
World and the benefits in the Old World. It is known as the unequal exchange because the Old World hurt the New World population with bringing in diseases while the Old World was receiving money and power from selling the crops they were receiving form the Old World. These exchange had brought success for most of the world at one point, but when people began the exchange of disease and other people it hurt the New World and kill off most of it's original inhabitants. The Colombian exchange was the exchange of benefits to the New World and suffering to the Old World.




Link to Resources on the Colombian Exchange: 
 http://www.edline.net/pages/Reading_HS/Classes/1415_10211202/Unit_2_-_Scientific_Revolutio_/Unit_2_Activity_3_-_Columbian_

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