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Columbian Exchange: Difference between revisions
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== Background == | == Background == | ||
Columbus | |||
[[File:GGS-ultimate-proximate-factors p87 w-Americas-added.jpg|thumb|For educational purposes only **not for distribution**]] | |||
=== Spanish conquest === | |||
* a core question about the Columbian exchange is why did the Spanish conquer the Americas in the Americas and one of 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 contageous 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) | |||
*** disease, which killed off a tremendous number of Native Americans and weakened their centralized states | |||
== Plants == | == Plants == | ||
* the most important exchange was: | * the most important exchange was: | ||