1. Columbian Exchange

2. Vocab
Cultural Diffusion: The spread of culture from one place to another

3. Area’s to Know! NEW WORLD: N. and S. America
OLD WORLD: Africa, Asia, Europe

4. What is it?
The Columbian Exchange is the interchange of plants, animals, and diseases between the Old World and the Americas following Columbus's arrival in the Caribbean in 1492 and the initial contact between Europeans and Natives..

5. Impact of Columbian Exchange
Exchanged food, plants, and animals during colonization.

7. Effects - Plants European plants do well in Americas
Many American plants decline/die-out
Europeans adopt crops from the Americas (potatoes and corn especially)
American economy shifts to large-scale agricultural production

8. Effects - Animals
Llama is the only domesticated animal in Latin America
Cattle, horses, and pigs come to the Americas
Changes land use
Environmental effects
Fertilizer became an important part of the agricultural system

9. Effects-Diseases
90 percent of North American natives die within 1st 100 years of European Contact
Severe population decline in Central and South America as well
Europeans need labor, import African slaves
Mixing of all three populations occur in varying degrees

10. Effects – Trade and Economics
Colonies exported raw materials, such as wood and furs to European nations who made finished goods and sold them back to colonies
Spurred growth of town and many merchants became wealthy
Mercantilism (power depends on wealth) created a national identity

11. Effects of Columbian Exchange felt not only in Europe, Americas
China
Arrival of easy-to-grow, nutritious corn helped population grow tremendously
Also a main consumer of silver mined in Americas
Africa
Two native crops of Americas—corn, peanuts—still among most widely grown
Scholars estimate one-third of all food crops grown in world are of American origin