How Did The Columbian Exchange Affect African Americans

The Columbian Exchange that occurred in the Western Hemisphere subjected America to extensive changes that would fundamentally change the people that lived there, the people that would come to live there, and the land itself. In fact, the America that we know today has been shaped by the events that took place hundreds of years ago during the Columbian Exchange. As European people brought their culture and values to the Americas, it started to combine and mix with the cultures and values already established there, changing both Europeans and Indians in admittedly small, but significant ways. While this can be considered a positive point of the Columbian Exchange, in its entirety, the Columbian Exchange could be considered a disaster, especially for the natives that lived in America before the Europeans came to claim it. Not only did Indians suffer at the hands of European diseases that we completely foreign to them, killing off millions and changing the Indian demographic forever, but the world that they grew to be so familiar with changed around them.

The term Columbian exchange refers to a lot of different things. You had the exchange of diseases, food crops, ideas, animals, and plants. Between the old world and having the Americans follow Columbus in 1492 in the Caribbean. The Columbian exchange mainly benefited the people in Europe and its colonies when it made things kind of bad for the Native Americans. The Columbian exchange explains why the Indian nations went downhill and the European colonies did a lot after Columbus and the new world. The Columbian exchange also talks about how the European nations became the wealthiest and most powerful places in the world during that time. The Columbian exchange lets you know why a lot of Africans were sold into slavery on the far side to fields dealings with sugar,

In the article “1491” by Charles Mann , Mann also talks about the most devastating impact from the contact between Europeans and Americans came from the spread of biological agents like smallpox, smallpox had the most effect on the Americas’ native populations there population could of been destroyed stated in the article that “Dobyns estimated that in the first 130 years of contact about 95 percent of the people in the Americas died—the worst demographic calamity in recorded history.” This shows just how serious smallpox was on people considering that they had no immunity to these diseases and because of this it was able to cause a major loss of population and of the people who lived they were still heavily affected by it. Mann also states “It is well known that Native Americans had no experience with many European diseases and were therefore immunologically unprepared—"virgin soil," in

However, the Native Americans didn’t just use these resources they garnered solely for food - they used the resources in several aspects of their lives, specifically for health. The Native Americans were dependant on the use of plants and other resources found in nature to use for curatives. Historians often attest that these curatives were far superior to the ones that Europeans used, and thus the span of life for Native Americans was often longer than that of the European people (The People). However, upon Native American and European contact, the Europeans introduced new, foreign diseases that were deadly because the Native Americans had never been exposed to these diseases, and thus did not have natural immunities to them. This was the same for other infectious diseases introduced to the Europeans, namely syphilis. Although, the amount of Europeans affected by syphilis was not even near the amount of Native Americans killed by some of the European diseases brought over in the Columbian exchange. Bartolomé de Las Casas commented on the epidemic of European viruses that killed thousands of Native Americans: “Who of those in

Culture wasn’t the only thing that the Europeans brought over to the Americas. Along with their customs and rules, came the diseases that the Native American’s have never been exposed to. The Europeans brought many communicable diseases such as small pox and measles which were transmitted to the Native Americans through trade goods or someone infected with them. This quickly annihilated most of the Native American population.

One of the major effects of the Columbian exchange was the decimation of the Native American population. Crosby attributes this to many factors, the conquest of the Europeans, the cultural vacuum created by European attempts to Christianize the Amerindians, and the introduction of new and lethal micro-organisms into the ecosystem. More commonly

The first effect of European and Native contact is the spread of diseases. Since the Native Americans had been isolated for centuries, they did not have immunity to European and eventually African diseases.

That had to be the worst thing ever to have to deal with. Some of the diseases were: small pox, measles, chicken pox, malaria, influenza and cholera, along with others. The ending result and the ultimate result of the whole Columbian Exchange was negative because of the spread of the diseases to the Indians and European, it created a lot of things and introduced new pests to the New World. The disease did not only spread to the Europeans to the natives, but the natives passed syphilis to the Europeans. Almost 90% of the Indians died due to the disease between 1492 and 1650. The disease did the stop the Europeans from trying their best to get make it to the New World. They could not avoid getting sick but it did not and could not stop them from invading Europeans. Clearly, imported disease had the most ruinous influence on the lives of Indians. Cooperative labor was required for hunting and gathering, and native groups faced extinction if disease caused a shortage of labor. Besides goods, disease and other things, the Columbian exchange was also apart of slavery. When slavery came most of the Native Americans has been killed off by the diseases that they has caught. The Europeans had now brought slaves in to work for them on the land. When you think of slaves you think of the south, but only 5% of the slaves brought to the New World started importing slaves in the 1620’s and it didn’t end until the Civil War. It is still true that slavery has existed long

Native Americans have been affected by disease and health concerns throughout their history, but a major turning point in Native American disease presence was with the arrival of Europeans. During this period European settlers brought many different technologies and lifestyles with them, but one of the most harmful

The columbian exchange was the most helpful for the europeans (especially spain) because they gained new valuable supplies like gold and new crops that increased popluation tremedously. It also created money-based stimulation. Population increase led to establishing homes and having complete control over areas. Africa no longer had a hold on gold, their population staggered, communities became ghost towns and the Columbian Exchange marked the rise of the slave trade. The Americas got deadly diseases, and new orders enforced on them etc.

It is estimated that 60% to 90% of Native American tribes had died from new diseases brought from the Columbian Exchange from the Europeans. Numerous diseases such as the infamous smallpox were introduced to the Native Americans and were degrading to the population as the Europeans grew a type of immunity from the diseases unlike the Native Americans. Conflict between the Spanish and the Native Americans brought war which encourages diseases to spread through hand to hand combat. Cultures and tribes were on the brink of extinction, as European expansionism and imperialism succeeded in claiming land that was formerly the Native Americans. The mass genocide and epidemic of various diseases towards the Native Americans reach to new heights due to the Columbian Exchange as Europeans militants strived for land and gold at the cost of the Native American’s

The Colombian exchange did not transfer only good things. Many diseases such as small pox, measles, mumps, and malaria were brought over to the New World from the Old World, and killed millions of natives (Document F). Hernando de Soto explored the Mississippi Valley in the early 1500s where he found large, thriving cities connected by networks of trade. When Rene-Robert de La Salle followed de Soto’s path in the 1680s, those cities had vanished because of disease (Document C). Not only was disease a negatve effect of European exploration but the natives became enslaved and were treated very poorly. Spaniards cut off the hands of Native Americans for not collecting enough gold for them that day, proving Spaniards were very harsh towards the natives (Document A). Not only that, but the first thing Columbus thought when he said the natives, was that they would make great servants (Document

After Columbus' 'discovery' of America in 1492, an began exchange between the 'Old World', the continents of Europe, Asia and Africa, and the 'New World', the continents of what today is North America and South America. Historian Alfred Crosby called this exchange the 'Columbian Exchange'. The spread of new foods and animals benefited both the Old and New worlds, although the exchange of disease devastated the New World. Historians estimate that as many as 100 million people died as a result of the spread of diseases such as Small Pox and Influenza. This exchange changed world history and created the world that we live in today.

The spread of Europeans into the Western Hemisphere was an advancement because of the exchange of culture, goods, and technology yet it was also a step backwards for human civilizations because of the loss of Native American and African lives and culture as well as an increase in the slave trade.

An enormous number of Native Americans passed on from European diseases, particularly smallpox, to which they had no