1. AP World History Period 4 1450-1750
Columbian Exchange
AP World History
Period 4

2. What is the Columbian Exchange?
The term was created by Al Crosby.
A historian at the University of Texas.
Defined as:
“the contact between any two people geographically separated from one another results in an ‘exchange’ of physical elements.”
The 3 main elements are:
Animals
Plants
Microbes

3. Animals
The only domesticated animal in Latin America before Europeans arrived, was the Llama.
Turkeys were the only domesticated animal in North America.
Europeans brought:
Cattle, chickens, donkeys, goats, horses, pigs, rabbits, and sheep.
Not all animals that Europeans brought came directly from Europe.
Some animals came from Africa and Asia, with the Europeans

4. Animals New animals completely changed the use of land.
Significant environmental impact.
European livestock multiplied quickly.
Destroyed land with their hooves.
Introduction of cattle and horses provided new forms of transportation and mobility in warfare.
Also provided hides and meat.

5. Animals
Animal fertilizer became an important part of agricultural system.
European horses, cattle, and pigs also affected American lives.
Beaver and other fur-bearing animals significantly influenced the exchange between the Americans and Europeans.

6. Plants
Europeans brought cash crops to the Americas and took new cash crops back.
To Europe:
Avocados, beans, cashews, chili peppers, cacao, corn, cotton, papayas, peanuts, pecans, pineapples, potatoes, rubber, squash, strawberries, sweat potatoes, tobacco, tomato, and vanilla.
To the Americas:
Bananas, black pepper, citrus fruits, coffee, grapes, garlic, oats, onions, lettuce, peaches, pears, sugar, rice, rye, and wheat.

7. Plants Like the animals, some came from Africa and Asia.
New crops flourished in the Americas.
Many indigenous plants were crowded out by new crops and weeds.
Old world crops were stronger.
Had a more competitive original environment.
Economy shifts to large scale agricultural production.
Very labor intensive.
Europeans adopted crops from the Americas.

8. Plants
Foods such as bananas and wheat that diversified American diets.
Other crops like sugar cane were intended for cultivation through exploited labor.
American crops such as maize and potatoes had a big impact on European agriculture.

9. Old World Microbes European diseases were particularly harsh.
The most common diseases exchanged were:
Smallpox, measles, diphtheria, whooping cough, chicken pox, bubonic plague, scarlet fever, and influenza.
Nearly all of the European diseases were communicable by air and touch.
The pathway for these diseases was invisible to both Native Americans and Europeans.

10. European Beliefs regarding Disease
At the time when Europeans arrived in the Americas, they had no theories about germs.
Illness in Europe was considered to be the consequence for sinning.
Native Americans were seen as “heathen” or non-Christian.
Therefore, they were regarded as sinners and subjected to illness as a punishment.

11. Rapid Spread of Disease
In most cases, Native Americans became sick even before they had direct contact with Europeans.
Trade goods traveling from tribe to tribe through middlemen were often the vehicle for the spread of disease.
There is no creditable evidence that Europeans intentionally infected trade items in order to infect Native Americans.

12. Smallpox Deadliest disease that the Europeans brought to the Americas.
Central Mexico’s population decreased from:
25 million in 1510 to less than 1 million in 1605.
Hispaniola’s population decreased from:
1 million in 1492 to 46,000 in 1512.
North America’s population decreased.
90% of Native Americans were gone within 100 years of the landing on Plymouth Rock.

13. Why were Europeans Immune?
Has everything to do with their original environment.
Most pathogens originate with animals or insects.
Domesticated animals and plants were more numerous in Europe.
Greater diversity meant more ecological protection.
However, Europeans did bring home some American diseases such as syphilis.

14. Demographic Shift Native American population decreases.
Diseases were a major factor.
This assisted European conquest and accelerated cultural change.
Europeans need labor.
Import African slaves.
Mixing of all three populations
occurred in varying degrees.

15. Demographic Shift
Europeans moved to the Americas to oversee economic production.
Focused economic efforts on mineral wealth or producing cash crops.
American economic system was changes to met the needs of Europeans.
Traditional forms of hunting/gathering and agriculture were disrupted.
Native Americans became dependant on European manufactured goods.

16. Demographic Shift
European settlements introduced Christian institutions and new forms of government.
Disrupted traditional Native American cultural and political processes, suppressed them, or destroyed them.

17. Columbian Exchange Class Questions
Why, and in what ways, was the Columbian Exchange a particularly significant case of global contact?
Was western Europe the chief beneficiary of the exchange? Explain why or why not.
What balance was there between the economic dependency of the Americas and the ideas, technology, and goods they received from Europe?
How is the Columbian Exchange seen as an ecological frontier?
How did microbial exchanges shape human history?