Effects of Global Contact: The Columbian Exchange

New World vs. Old World

The Columbian Exchange- 15 th /16 th Century  When Columbus returned to Spain in March 1493, he brought with him plants and animals from the Americas  When he returned to the Americas, he brought 1,200 settlers and European plants and animals with him  These two events began a global exchange that would change the world  Called the Columbian Exchange

The Columbian Exchange

New World vs. Old World Exchange N. America: Sunflowers, Corn, Avocadoes C. America: Peppers, Beans, Chocolate S. America: Potatoes, Tomatoes, Peanuts Europe: Wheat, Beats, Onions, Cabbage, Apples, Peas, Carrots Asia: Rice, Sugarcane, Mangoes Africa: Radishes, Watermelon, Coffee

New Foods and Animals  New foods in Americas brought back to Europe: tomatoes, pumpkins, peppers, corn, and potatoes  Corn  Spread all across Europe and to Africa and Asia and became one of the world’s most important crops  Potatoes  Easy to grow and store  Helped feed Europe’s growing population

New Foods, Goods, and Animals

New Foods and Animals  Foods in Europe that were brought to Americas:  Wheat and Grapes from Europe  Bananas and sugar cane from Africa and Asia  Animals in Europe that were brought to Americas:  Cattle, pigs, goats, chickens for food  Horses and donkeys for transportation  Horses made it easier for Natives to hunt buffalo

Global Population Explodes  New foods contributed to population growth around the world  Columbian Exchange sparked the migration of people  European settlers migrated to the Americas

Land of Opportunity  Atlantic Slave Trade brought millions of Africans to the Americas  Although, European diseases that were brought to the Natives did lead the decline of the Native American population  Small pox  Influenza  Measles  Typhus

Commercial Revolution  Price Revolution – the period in European history when inflation rose rapidly  1500s prices began to rise in Europe and much more money in circulation, which led to inflation  Inflation fueled by the amount of gold and silver coming into Europe from the Americas  Capitalism  Expanded trade, increased money supply, and the push for overseas empires expanded capitalism  Entrepreneurs were the key to successful capitalism

Mercantilism  New economic policy  Aimed at strengthening the national economies of European countries  Believed that a nation’s real wealth was measured in its gold and silver  To build the supply of gold and silver, a nation must export more than it imports  Colonies played a major role in providing wealth to the parent country  Colony provided resources and raw materials that the parent country would then manufacture and make finished goods out of

Mercantilism

The Atlantic Slave Trade

Triangular Trade Across the Atlantic  Atlantic Slave Trade – formed one part of a three-legged international trade network known as the Triangular Trade  Triangular Trade – a triangle-shaped series of Atlantic trade routes linking Europe, Africa, and the Americas

Shipping People and Goods  How the triangular trade worked: 1. Merchant ships brought European goods (guns, cloth, cash) to Africa. These goods were traded for slaves in Africa. 2. Middle Passage – Slaves are transported to the Americas to be exchanged for sugar, molasses, and other products manufactured at plantations owned by Europeans.

Shipping People and Goods  How the triangular trade worked: 3. Merchants carried sugar, molasses, cotton, and other American goods (furs, salt fish, and rum). These goods were shipped to Europe, where they were traded at a profit for the European commodities that merchants needed to return to Africa.

Shipping People and Goods

Industries and Cities Thrive  Triangular trade was immensely profitable for many people.  Industries that supported trade thrived  Shipbuilding, fishing, raising tobacco, processing sugar  Thriving trade led to successful port cities

The Middle Passage  Most Africans were taken from inland villages  They were then forced to march to coastal ports  Men, women, and children were bound with ropes and chains and forced to walk distances as far as a thousand miles  Many captives died along the way – some tried to escape and were punished  Those who survived were restrained in coastal holding pens and warehouses until European traders arrived by ship

The Middle Passage  Africans were packed below the decks of slave ships, usually in chains  Hundreds of men, women, and children were packed in for journeys that lasted from 3 weeks to 3 months  Disease was the biggest threat to the captives  smallpox and other diseases as a result of the “floating coffins”  Up to half of Africans on board died because of disease or brutal mistreatment

The Middle Passage

 Some enslaved Africans resisted and others tried to take control of the ship to go back to Africa  Suicide was incredibly common  Many Africans believed that in death they would be returned to their home countries  They hanged themselves, starved themselves, or leapt overboard

Impact of the Slave Trade  Brought enormous wealth to merchants and traders  Provided the labor that helped profitable colonial economies grow  Impact on Africans was devastating  African states and societies were torn apart  The lives of individual Africans were either cut short or forever brutalized

Impact of the Slave Trade  Historians still debate the number of Africans who were directly involved in the Atlantic slave trade  By the mid-1800s an estimated 11 million enslaved Africans had reached the Americas  Another 2 million probably died under the brutal conditions of the Middle Passage