The Columbian Exchange

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The Columbian Exchange (1492- ) is the exchange of plants, animals, people, and diseases between the Americas and the rest of the world. It took place after Columbus arrived in 1492.

In 1491 in the Americas there were no:

• cows, oxen, horses, sheep, pigs, chickens, rats,
• honeybees,
• wheat, rice, barley, oats, rye, yams, black-eyed peas,
• sugar, coffee, tea, milk, wine, beer,
• bananas, apples, peaches, pears, lemons, oranges, watermelons, grapes,
• carrots, lettuce, onions,
• dandelions, crabgrass, thistles,
• malaria, measles, mumps, swine flu, smallpox, typhus, bubonic plague, diphtheria, or whooping cough.

None!

Meanwhile, in Africa, Europe, and Asia there were no:

• turkeys,
• maize (corn), potatoes (white or sweet), cassava (manioc),
• pineapples, avocados, blueberries, strawberries,
• tomatoes, pumpkins, squash,
• beans (kidney, navy, lima), peanuts, cashews,
• chocolate, vanilla,
• chilli,
• sunflowers,
• tobacco,
• syphilis.

American Indians did not ride on horses. There was no tomato sauce in Italy or curry powder in India.

Columbus changed all that. The Portuguese Empire and the Catholic Church, with their early worldwide networks, helped it along.

The Americas had been largely cut off from the rest of the world for over 10,000 years. When plague and disease had repeatedly wracked Eurasia, killing millions, the Americas were untouched – until, that is, Columbus arrived. Then, in the space of 200 years, more than half the people of the Americas were wiped out by disease and the dynastic wars and famines it led to.

European conquest: The Aztecs and Incas, by the time the Spanish conquistadors arrived, had already been seriously weakened by Eurasian disease. Disease, not any technological edge, was the main reason the Spanish made short work of both empires.

Likewise, it is unlikely anyone but scholars would have heard of the Mayflower if disease (maybe bubonic plague) had not ravaged the New England coast before the Pilgrims arrived.

African Diaspora: In the 1700s the Americas bounced back – but much of the increase in people came from Africans brought as slaves. Malaria, a disease probably brought by Columbus himself, gave Africans an edge over both Europeans and Americans. But because they were in fact slaves, it was Europeans who profited.

World population growth: Because farmers had more choice of what to grow, in both the Americas and elsewhere, more land could be farmed or farmed better. Sweet potatoes, for example, grow better in parts of China than rice. Wheat grows better in parts of North America than maize. Cassava and potatoes, because they grow underground, helped people in Africa and Europe live through wars. And so on.

Mass extinction: The growth in farming, though, has meant that many species have died out, as many as would ordinarily die out in a million years. People have more choice of what to eat, but at the same time there are fewer different kinds of plants and animals on the Earth.

Alfred Crosby, a geographer and historian, came up with the term “Columbian Exchange” in the early 1970s. But it did not catch on till 1992, when all things Columbus were in. It is now a standard part of history as taught at US schools.

– Abagond, 2018.

See also:

• Welcome to Hispanic Heritage Month 2018
• Columbus
• from the Americas
  • maize
  • turkey
• to the Americas
  • coffee
  • tea
  • sugar
  • swine flu
• Portuguese Empire
• African Diaspora
• world population
• guns, germs and steel