Columbian Exchange

• the exchange, or transfer, or plants, animals, disease, people, and cultures to and from the Americas and the rest of the world
  • followed the European discovery of the Americans by Christopher Columbus in 1492.
• the Columbian Exchange marks a dramatic turning point in world history with tremendous consequences upon world interactions and outcomes

Background

Columbus

Ultimate & proximate factors analysis for Eurasia and Americas

Spanish conquest

• a core question about the Columbian exchange is:
  • why did the Spanish invade and conquer the Native Americans and the Native American empires did not invade and conquer Spain?
• Jared Diamond's "Guns, Germs and Steel" explores this question
• Diamond's analysis shows that the "broad" or very long-term causality of the outcome that that Spanish conquered the Americas and not the other way around is due to geography, notably:
  • continental axis:
    • east-west axis of Eurasia allowed for exchange
    • north-south axis of the Americas limited exchange
  • domesticable plants
    • both regions had an abundance of domesticable plants
    • but Eurasia had more available plants
      • and given the east-west axis of Eurasia, those plants were spread
      • therefore, Eurasian populations arose earlier than those in the Americas
      • and centralized societies that might want to attack one or the other arose earlier in Eurasia
  • domesticable animals
    • the Americas lacked animals that are appropriate for food consumption and transport
      • especially the horse
    • many contagious diseases originated from human proximity to domesticated animals
    • lacking those animals, the Americans had no immunity to Eurasian diseases
  • these combinations yielded advantages to Eurasian societies that the Spanish used in their conquest of the Americas, including
    • technologies of guns and steel (used for weapons and tools)
    • horses (war horses provided a considerable military advantage)
      • especially for mounting soldiers and those metal weapons
    • disease, which killed off a tremendous number of Native Americans and weakened their centralized states
    • writing system which effectively transmitted information about other people and technologies
      • ex. Marco Polo's journeys were tremendously helpful to Europeans as they learned details about China and other places
      • Inca and Aztec writing systems existed
        • but Inca system of “quipu" beads and strings effectively recorded information but not words
          • see Quipu (wikipedia)

Plants

• the most important exchange was
• deepest impacts include:

animals from the Americas

• turkeys

plants from the Americas

• beans
• chocolate
• maize (corn)
• potatoes
• sweet potatoes
• tomatoes

diseases from the Americas

• syphilis

animals to the Americas

• chickens
• cows
• horses
• pigs

diseases to the Americas

• malaria (from Africa)
• small pox

plants to the Americas

• apples
• coffee (from Africa)
• wheat

Animals

• the most important exchange was:
  • introduction of farm animals to the Americas

• deepest impacts include:

Insects

• the most important exchange was:

• deepest impacts include:
  • European honey bees
  • English earth worms
    • the ice sheet and tundra climat killed the earthworms across northern North America
    • introduction of English worms re-worked the soil and changed the ecosystem

Disease

• the most important exchange was:

• deepest impacts include:

Technologies

• the most important exchanges were:
  • iron
  • gunpowder
  • horses
• deepest impacts include:
  • increase in deadliness of Native American tribal warfare
  • mass killing of North American buffalo herds via horse and firearms use
  • North American Native American armed resistance to European encroachment

from the Americas

• rubber
  • rubber is a natural latex
    • it is a milky-substance, like sap, that is derived from certain tropical trees
    • various latex-producing, rubber trees exist around the world
    • however, the Brazilian "Rubber Tree" is the primary source of industrial-use rubber
  • the Rubber Tree is a native plant of the Amazon (can grow to 140 feet)
  • earliest documented use of natural latex (rubber) was by the Olmec civilization in Mesoamerica (central America)
  • the Olmec and, later, Maya and Aztec, used rubber for balls for sports
  • the Aztec added rubber to cloth to make it waterproof
  • see
    • Heva Brasiliensis (wiki) for the story of this important plant
    • https://www.oringsusa.com/Rubber_Intro.pdf Brief History of Rubber (originsusa.com)]

• canoes
  • from the Tiaino word <<
• farming techniques

to the Americas

• horses
• iron
• alcohol

Language

• the most important exchange was:
• deepest impacts include:

Other cultural, political and religious exchange

• the most important exchange was:
• deepest impacts include: