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The true beneficiaries of the Columbian Exchange

Frank Brefo History 272: Global Perspectives Dr. Adam Sundberg 2/6/2017

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The Columbian Exchange refers to the transfers of peoples, animals, plants, diseases, and technology between the New and Old Worlds that European trade in the Atlantic opened up1. Christopher Columbus and his men discovered (by accident) the New World when they washed ashore the Bahamas in 1492. Upon arrival, Columbus brought more than just ships and men. Columbus was able to initiate the transfer between cultures of the Western Hemisphere and Eastern Hemisphere. In their own respect, each hemisphere had been developing their own exclusive cultures, art, animals, ways of living/survival, and even diseases for thousands of years without contact with each other. Overall, the impact of the Columbian Exchange was beneficial to Europeans because they benefited from staple crops, gained a financial asset in cash crops and gained new land from the natives. All while Native Americans suffered because of rampant diseases and lost land. Africans also suffered because many of them were forced into slavery to work on plantations. This essay will help analyze the transfers between the two hemispheres and determine its consequences and benefits it had on both Old World and New World peoples. The Columbian Exchange had a wide array of consequences for a wide array of people, ranging from good to bad. On the good side, the introduction to horses, pigs, sheep, goats, and cattle brought indigenous peoples hunting opportunities and regular sources of meat. In the text, The Earth and its Peoples, Bulliet explicitly states, “No animal had a more striking effect on the cultures of native peoples than the horse, which increased the efficiency of hunters and the military capacity of warriors on the plains. The horse permitted the Apache, Sioux, Blackfoot, Comanche, Assiniboine, and others to hunt the vast herds of buffalo in North America more efficiently2.” By the 18th century, nearly all of the domesticated animals in the Caribbean were ones introduced by the Europeans. 1 Richard W. Bulliet et al., The earth and its peoples: a global history (Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning, 2014), 466. 2 Bulliet, The Earth and Its Peoples, 467

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The Columbian Exchange also brought the New World new farming capabilities for plants and crops. “New World Farming equipment ignited the New World economy and improved health on a long term basis3.” The introduction of the plow was especially helpful because it was able to cultivate large areas of land which in turn spurred a surplus of plants and food for both the Native and European people. Large areas of land with rich soil transformed into crop fields which eventually lead to the development of towns, where towns would be established near farms where crops were grown and cultivated The introduction to firearms and new weapon capabilities were also a plus for people of the New World. “A bow and arrow allowed for hunting from greater distances, but they did not do the same amount of damage as a gun. Some animals required more than one arrow to be killed. When Natives witnessed the destructiveness of guns they realized that they could use them for hunting larger animals4.” Now Natives could hunt down larger herds of animals more efficiently, which is translated to the New World market where weapons became the most widely traded good between Europeans and indigenous people. The Columbian Exchange yielded many good things for the New World, however it is important to analyze the many negative effects it brought as well. This exchange can also be thanked for the transmission of many diseases between Indigenous and European peoples. Europeans brought along with them a large number of diseases which heavily impacted the Indian population. The reason Indian population numbers were never able to recover from Old World diseases was because they had no prior exposure to these disease which made them very suspectible, Indians were also very cut off from the rest of the world so their immune systems were unprepared for such a new encounters, and nearly all Old World diseases were transmittable 3 "The Columbian Exchange," The Columbian Exchange, 4 "The Columbian Exchange," The Columbian Exchange,

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via air and touch making it easy for the diseases to spread quickly. These diseases not only attacked humans but attacked animals, taking away livestock and sources of food. Historians estimate about 50%-90% of Native Americans died due to European diseases. A critical side effect of these collective diseases was starvation since the diseases wiped out so many people that there weren’t enough people to grow crops to feed the living, and malnutrition made survivors that much more susceptible to disease. A disease transmitted from the New World to the Old World would be Venereal Syphilis since it was sexually transmitted by the sailors who returned from the Americas. Aside from disease, the introduction to European livestock also had its negative side effects. Although they produced a consistent source of meat and enhanced their hunting capabilities European livestock proved to hurt and degrade their environment. “Faced with natural predators, cattle, pigs, horses, and sheep, as well as pests like rats and rabbits, multiplied rapidly in the open spaces of the Americas. On the vast plains of present today southern Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina, herds of wild cattle in northern Mexico and what became the Southwest of the United States. Where Old World livestock spread most rapidly, environmental changes were most dramatic. Marauding livestock often had a destructive impact on Amerindian agriculturalists.5” Another con of the Columbian Exchange would be the exploitation of workers and slavery. Before turning to Africa, Europeans enslaved Native North Americans. However, to fill the void of lost life (loss of labor) from war and disease, Europeans turned to African where they enslaved about 8 to 10.5 million Africans where they were forced to produce cash crops such as sugar, coffee, and tobacco. 5 Bulliet, The Earth and Its Peoples, 467

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In summary Europeans benefited from the Columbian exchange by being able to generate substantial profit from the Americas and its people. They were able to do this though the exploitation of Africans and Native peoples to produce cash crops such as sugar, cotton, and tobacco on a large scale. While the New World and indigenous peoples did gain things such as European livestock, weapons, and plants; the loss of 50%-90% of their population and their land serves as a hefty price to pay for such things. The Africans also took a hefty toll with the extraction of 10 million Africans taken from their continent for the sake of slavery and European benefit.

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References

Apecsecadmin. "Apecsec.org." Apecsecorg. November 19, 2014. Accessed February 06, 2017. http://apecsec.org/columbian-exchange-pros-and-cons/. Bulliet, Richard W., Pamela Kyle Crossley, Daniel R. Headrick, Steven W. Hirsch, Lyman L. Johnson, and David Northrup. The earth and its peoples: a global history. Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning, 2014. "The Columbian Exchange." The Columbian Exchange. Accessed February 06, 2017. http://public.gettysburg.edu/~tshannon/hist106web/site19/index.html....