Columbian Exchange

Beginning with the voyage of Christopher

Columbus, the new connections between Eastern
and Western hemispheres resulted in the
Columbian exchange
 Columbus Crosses the Atlantic
1492 Columbus Finds the Americas
Four main European powers explore: Portugal, Spain,
France, and England.
Christopher ColumbusGenoese explorer, leads
expedition to Americas.
Columbus encounters TainoNative American
islanders of the Caribbean.
Convinced he found Asia, Columbus returns to Spain in
triumph.
Columbus leads three more expeditions to explore and
colonize
 NATIVE AMERICAS IN 1400S
Native American
societies in North
America were as varied
as the geography
The Pueblo (SW) and
Iroquois (NE) were two
famous tribes
Most of the tribes in
America had common
religious views, trade
patterns & values
WEST AFRICAN SOCIETIES OF THE 1400S
Long established,
sophisticated societies
existed in Western Africa
The Kingdom of Songhai
controlled trans-Sahara trade
Kingdom of Benin and Kongo
were two famous dynasties
Village and family bonds
formed the basis of life
 EUROPEAN SOCIETIES OF THE 1400S
European villages had
a long tradition of
social hierarchy
complete with nobles,
merchants & peasants
Christianity played a
critical role religious
leaders had power
EUROPEAN EXPLORATION
The countries of
Portugal, Spain, France
and England explored in
the late 1400s for God,
Gold, and Glory
Improved mapmaking,
better sailboats,
compasses, astrolabes,
Prince Henry all led to
better exploration
 Impact on Europeans
Europeans began to cross the Atlantic creating
one of the largest voluntary migrations in
world history.
Overseas expansion inflamed national rivalries
in Europe causing conflict.
Treaty of Tordesillas, 1494
Growth of trade markets completely changed
the world FOREVER.
 Conquistadores: Cortes

In 1519, Cortes arrived

in Mexico looking for
gold with about 450
soldiers
He advanced inland to
the Aztec capital of
Tenochtitlan, captured
Motecuzoma II, and
starved Tenochtitlan
into surrender in 1521
 The Spanish Claim a New Empire
1519 Cortes Conquers the Aztec
Conquistadors, Spanish
explorers (conquerors), seek
and found gold, and sliver
forced Native Americans to
mine for more.
Hernando Cortes leads
expedition to Mexico.
Montezuma, last Aztec ruler;
conquered by Spain.
 Conquistadores: Pizarro
In 1530, Francisco Pizarro led a
Spanish expedition from Central
America to Peru
Started out with 180
soldiers, but later received
reinforcements to make a
force of about 600
Captured the Inca capital of
Cuzco in 1533, murdering
Atahualpa and other ruling
elites and extorting and stealing
gold
By 1540, the Spanish had
secured Peru
 Spain Enjoys a Golden Age
Spanish empire: Mexico to northern South
America, includes New Spain.
New SpainSpanish colony; made up of
Mexico and parts of Central, South America.
1545 - Silver is
discovered at Potos in
Bolivia. Spain begins to
reap huge financial
rewards from its New
World colonies.
 The Spanish Pattern of Conquest
Spanish conquer by
intermarriage, and by forced
labor and oppression.
Mestizopeople of mixed
Spanish and Native
American descent.
Encomiendasystem in
which natives labor for
Spanish landlords.
 Settler Colonies in North America

Beginning in the early 1600s, the English established

colonies along the eastern coast of North America
1607: Jamestown was first to be settled
John Smith led this group of settlers
 PURITANS CREATE A NEW ENGLAND

The 16th century Reformation caused a split in the

Christian Church; Catholics and Protestants
One extreme group of Protestant reformers the Puritans
sought to cleanse or purify their religion of all traces of
Catholicism
 COLONISTS MEET RESISTANCE

New England Colonists (Puritans) soon conflicted with the Native

Americans over land & religion
King Philips War was fought in 1675 between the Natives and
Puritans ending a year later with many dead and the Natives
retreating
 ENGLANDS COLONIES PROSPER
Throughout the 1600s and King
1700s, more British Colonies George
were established III
By 1752, the English Crown
had assumed more & more
responsibility for the 13
colonies
Mercantilism & Navigation
Acts were two such ways that
the English government
controlled the colonies
MERCANTILISM: AN
ECONOMIC SYSTEM IN WHICH
NATIONS SEEK TO INCREASE THEIR
WEALTH BY OBTAINING GOLD &
SILVER AND WITH A FAVORABLE
BALANCE OF TRADE
IMPACT OF COLUMBUS
On Africans- Before slave
trade ended in the 1800s, 10
million Africans taken
On Europeans- Biggest
voluntary migration in world
history
On Trade- Columbian
Exchange meant new goods
& products flowed between
continents
 Impact on Native Americans
Europeans were learning of the profitability of
the plantation system relying on what?
Economic benefit of using local forced labor
Disease Europeans, unknowingly brought
measles, mumps, chickenpox, smallpox,
typhus and others.
The local people had no built-up natural
immunity to these diseases yet.
 Impact on Africans
With decline of native work
force, labor was needed
from elsewhere.
Slave trade exploded,
especially in Western Africa
Over the next 300 years
(1500-1800) almost 10
million people were taken
 Impact on Europeans
Europeans began to cross the Atlantic creating one of
the largest voluntary migrations in world history.

Overseas expansion inflamed national rivalries in Europe causing

conflict Treaty of Tordesillas, 1494
Growth of trade markets completely changed the world FOREVER.
Columbian Exchange
 Type of Old World New World
Organism (What they Had) (What they had)
Domesticated camel goat alpaca
Animals cattle fowl (a few
horse
donkey species)
fowl pig
guinea pig
(several rabbit
species raccoon
sheep
including llama
chickens) turkey
 Type of Old World New World
Organism (What they Had) (What they had)
Domesticated amaranth peanut
bananas hemp avocado
Plants pecan
barley lettuce beans pineapple
cashew
beans oats chia
potato
quinoa
black onion chicle (chewing
rubber
gum base)
pepper peach chili pepper squash (incl.
cabbage pear (includes the bell pumpkin)
pepper) sunflower
coffee rice cocoa strawberry
cotton rye cotton (long (American
staple variety, species used in
citrus sugarcane 90% of modern
modern
cultivation)
garlic turnip maize (corn)
hybrids)
wheat manioc sweet potato
(cassava) tobacco
papaya tomato
vanilla
American foods (potatoes, maize, manioc) became staple crops
in various parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Cash crops (sugar
tobacco) were grown primarily on plantations with coerced
labor and were exported to Europe and the Middle East in this
period.
Foods brought to the New World by African Slaves
The successful cultivation of rice in the United States is thought
by some historians to have occurred in the South Carolina Sea
Islands when an enslaved African woman taught her white owner
how to grow the crop. The first rice seeds used in rice farming
may have been imported directly from the Island of Madagascar
in 1685, and historians generally believe that enslaved Africans
familiar with growing rice in West Africa supplied the expertise for
its production in North America.
Foods brought to the New World by African Slaves
Okra was especially favored in French and Spanish Louisiana during the
colonial era. Slaves in South Carolina commonly prepared the seeds of the
Okra plant as a coffee substitute. Its leaves were also used medicinally as a
softening ingredient in making a poultice, which is a warm mixture of bread or
clay that can be applied to aching or inflamed parts of the body. Enslaved
women sometimes used okra to achieve abortions by lubricating the uterine
passage of pregnant women with the plants slimy pods. In West Africa,
women today still use okra to induce an abortion, employing much the same
method.
Type of Organism Old World New World
(What they Had) (What they had)
Infectious Disease scarlet syphilis (possibly)
fever yaws
bubonic sleeping yellow fever
plague sickness (American strains)
cholera smallpox
influenza tubercul
malaria osis
measles typhoid
yellow
fever
 The Exchange can be positive or
negative in its effects
In the exchange that started along the coast of
Newfoundland and was made widespread by
Columbus, disease was the most negative for
the Native American population
Fatality rate over a period of two to three
generations was 95% for many tribal groups
In some cases, as in the Mohegans case, the
fatality rate could be 100%
 Europeans believed that it was Gods
will that Indians died
No germ theory at
the time of contact.
Illness in Europe was
considered to be the
consequence of sin
Indians, who were
largely heathen or
non-Christian were
regarded as sinners
thus subject to illness
as a punishment
 Old World Diseases
European disease was particularly
virulent
Smallpox, measles, diphtheria, whooping
cough, chicken pox, bubonic plague,
scarlet fever and influenza were the most
common diseases
Nearly all of the European diseases were
communicable by air and touch.
The pathway of these diseases was
invisible to both Indians and Europeans
 Disease raced ahead of people
In most cases, Indian peoples became sick even
before they had direct contact with Europeans
Trade goods that traveled from tribe to tribe though
middlemen were often the source
There is little or no evidence to think that Europeans
intentionally infected trade items for trade with
Indians to kill them
 New World Microbes
Not all pathogens traveled from Europe to the
Americas
Syphilis, polio, hepatitis and encephalitis were
new world diseases
African slaves were less vulnerable to
European diseases than were Indians
Europeans succumbed to Malaria easily