The Exchange in the Americas

The Columbian Exchange was a major event that shaped the way the world is today. It was a cultural transfer among new regions that involved widespread transfer of people, plants, animals, technology, and disease. It was named after Christopher Columbus, who was credited with finding the Americas and creating the passage into this New World that was unknown to other continents. The introduction to high-calorie crops in the Americas were extremely crucial in the Columbian Exchange. New crops such as potatoes, maize, rice, and cassava allowed for an extreme rise in population growth. With these new crops they needed workers to work the crops, this would set up a social class system, exchanging and buying of slaves from mainly Africa. The Exchange intermingled many different peoples from all over the world, with many of these people came from Africa and Europe. With these people came disease and famine to the Americas, which killed or sickened many of the natives of the region. 

Some of the major crops still have a major impact on the way the world operates today agriculturally. The crops that the Europeans brought over in the Columbian Exchange shaped Colombia for centuries to come. Europeans brought over crops such as maize, potatoes, cassava, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, and rice. These were all very high-calorie crops that as we know today, give plenty of energy and nutritional value to humans. This allowed for a major increase in the population in the Americas. Some of the crops that came from the South American region were bell peppers, chili peppers, vanilla, sugar, beans, pumpkin, avocados, pineapples, blueberries, etc. Many of these foods we know today came from regions that were all over the world, and the reason that they were so important in dealing with the Columbia Exchange is because the Exchange allowed us to intermingle and to spread different cultures around the globe. But with all the new people coming to the Americas, diseases such as smallpox and measles became a major factor as far as population is concerned. This ended up hurting the population for a while. However, since agriculture in Colombia was doing so great, this allowed for an increase in population rather than a diminishing one. 

The Columbian Exchange greatly affected the country of Colombia today because without the Colombian Exchange, the country would not have their staple crops to rely on, and agriculture is Colombia’s biggest commodity. Coffee is the biggest export in Colombia today, and this was brought over by the Europeans in the 16^th century by Jesuit priests who arrived with Spanish settlers. The United States is Colombia’s biggest trading partner, and this just goes to show how important this event was in history. Sadly, slavery was established in the region for work purposes and this set up a social system that would last for centuries to come. With these two factors alone, this was enough for Colombia to become an established society and a contributor on a global scale. Without the imports of these different plants and people to the Americas, the world today would be completely different culturally speaking. 

Citations:

“Columbian Exchange.” Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online, doi:10.1163/2352-0272_emho_com_018110.

“Columbian Exchange.” Encyclopedia of Environmental Change, doi:10.4135/9781446247501.n757.

Martínez-Fernández, Luis. “First Encounters, Inventing America, and the Columbian Exchange.” Key to the New World, 2018, doi:10.5744/florida/9781683400325.003.0004.