The Columbian Exchange was an crucial milestone in the history of our civilization. The Columbian Exchange had both positive and unfavorable impact on the civilization brining advantages and losses for populations till our time. The Columbian Exchange (also referred to as the Beneficial Exchange) resulted in distribution of plants and animals, agricultural items and labour forces, philosophical ideas and diseases in between Eastern and Western parts from the world. The Columbian Exchange occurred after the discovering of The us in 1492, when Columbus very first settled inside New World. Exchange of meals goods was essential for European counties, Africa and Asia. The disadvantage of introducing potato was that it couldn’t be stored so long as a grain did.
The main crops came type American continent have been potatoes and sweet potatoes, maize, peppers, beans, tomatoes, peanuts, etc. This resulted in population growth, in particular in Northern Europe, which would be impossible “without the increased nourishment provided by the potato” (Tomaske, 1998). Inside Old World American knew rice, wheat, barley, sugar, wine grapes and oats, etc. Exchange of animals included rabbits, mousses, rats, camels, and donkeys from the Old World, and turkey, llama, alpaca during the New World. Probably, probably the most important animal, which had changed the life of Native Americans, was a horse. New animals brought new sources of foods and energy for Native People in america but destroyed their plough-lands. New Infectious diseases within the Old Globe became a real catastrophe for millions of Native Americans. They included fatal illnesses (bubonic plague, typhoid, cholera) and infectious diseases (tuberculosis, smallpox, malaria, yellow fever, scarlet fever, measles, and typhoid).
For instance, “about fifty epidemics swept from the Valley of Mexico among 1519 and 1810” (Tomaske, 1998). From America to Europe only syphilis was spread. Also, a part from the Columbian exchange was a slave labour supply from Africa on the New World. You can conclude how the Columbian Exchange is also referred to as an ecological revolution that changed cultural patterns of each hemispheres. Both of them have been losers and winners as well adopting unknown earlier crops and animals to their lands, introducing new philosophical and cultural ideas together with fatal diseases.
