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Imagine yourself preparing for a journey. There is no guarantee that you will ever return to your native land. There is no indication or previous knowledge of how long that journey will take. What do you take with you? Items of personal and memorial value? The food you are familiar with cultivating and eating? Animals you have domesticated and understand?
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Sign up for freeWhich of the following was NOT an influential commodity of the Columbian Exchange?
The Columbian Exchange would best be described as
Which of the following was NOT an unintended consequence of the Columbian Exchange?
Why was disease the most influential effect of the Columbian Exchange?
“ There was no sickness; they had no aching bones; they had then no high fever; they had then no smallpox; they had then no burning chest; they had then no abdominal pain; they had then no consumption; they had then no headache. At that time the course of humanity was orderly. The foreigners have made it otherwise when they arrived here.” Source: The Book of Chilan Balam of Chumayel, translated by Ralph L. Roy, 83. This quote best describes which effect of the Columbian Exchange?
Which of the following diseases, many of which were listed in the quote above, was the most influential in disrupting or eradicating native societies?
Which of the following European nations was the first to begin consistent contact with the native peoples of the New World?
Which of the following crops, originating in the New World, became pivotal in the establishment of the English colonies in North America?
Which of the following domesticated animals originated in the New World?
Which of the following was the most influential agricultural commodity exchanged from the New World to the Old World?
Which Old World crop would be introduced into the New World, having the most influence in creating a demand for mass enslaved labor from Africa?
Which of the following was NOT an influential commodity of the Columbian Exchange?
The Columbian Exchange would best be described as
Which of the following was NOT an unintended consequence of the Columbian Exchange?
Why was disease the most influential effect of the Columbian Exchange?
“ There was no sickness; they had no aching bones; they had then no high fever; they had then no smallpox; they had then no burning chest; they had then no abdominal pain; they had then no consumption; they had then no headache. At that time the course of humanity was orderly. The foreigners have made it otherwise when they arrived here.” Source: The Book of Chilan Balam of Chumayel, translated by Ralph L. Roy, 83. This quote best describes which effect of the Columbian Exchange?
Which of the following diseases, many of which were listed in the quote above, was the most influential in disrupting or eradicating native societies?
Which of the following European nations was the first to begin consistent contact with the native peoples of the New World?
Which of the following crops, originating in the New World, became pivotal in the establishment of the English colonies in North America?
Which of the following domesticated animals originated in the New World?
Which of the following was the most influential agricultural commodity exchanged from the New World to the Old World?
Which Old World crop would be introduced into the New World, having the most influence in creating a demand for mass enslaved labor from Africa?
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Team Columbian Exchange Teachers
Now add one more factor: the destination will also have flora, fauna, and other things you may have never seen before or even knew existed. It would be like you are entering a strangely familiar yet alien world. This experience, though hypothetical to most, was all too real for the Europeans who began to explore and conquer the North and South American continents in the late 1400s and early 1500s.
Most historians begin recording the conquest, colonization, and interaction between the peoples of the Americas and Europe with the First Voyage of Christopher Columbus in 1492. Though there is evidence that other European explorers may have discovered the continents before Columbus’s voyage, it was not until after his exploits that Europe, especially Spain, retained a forceful and economic focus on what would be called the “New World.”
Fig. 1 Engraving of a portrait of Christopher Columbus
An Italian explorer and sailor, Christopher Columbus, was hired by King Ferdinand II and Queen Isabella I of Spain to find passage to the Spice Islands in India and Asia that was not controlled or dominated by the Portuguese. Columbus, sailing west in 1492, crossed the Atlantic ocean, landing in what is now called the Caribbean.
His first interactions with the Indigenous Peoples were cautious, but Columbus wanted to continue the economic exploration of the region.
Fig. 2 Columbus landing on Hispaniola 1492
Upon his return to Spain, he convinced the King and Queen of the value of ongoing exploration of the area and engaging in trade or even conquest of the Indigenous Peoples. The trade - voluntary or involuntary- of every new plant, animal, good or merchandise, idea, and disease over the century following Colombus' first voyage is a process historians call The Columbian Exchange.
The Columbian Exchange: every new plant, animal, good or merchandise, idea, and disease traded - voluntarily or involuntarily - between the Old World of Europe, Africa, and Asia and the New World of North and South America.
Excluding a small minority of outlier explorers from Europe, there had been very little to no interaction between the Peoples, flora, and fauna of the North and South American continents and their counterparts in Europe, Africa, and Asia since the geologic Bering Land Bridge connecting the continents submerged around 10,000 years before. The plants, animals, and human culture, therefore, adapted and evolved to their unique environments during that time.
This separation over thousands of years created genuinely unique biodiversity ranges in almost all aspects of plant and animal life.
I saw neither sheep nor goats nor any other beast, but I have been here a short time, half a day; yet if there were any, I couldn’t have failed to see them [...] there were dogs that never barked… All the trees were different than ours as day from night, and so the fruits, the herbage, the rocks, and all things1
- Christopher Colombus
The Colombian Exchange saw the exchange of many plants, animals, spices, minerals and commodities between the Old and the New World, but there was a darker side to it - the exchange of disease decimated a huge amount of the Indigenous populations of North and South America. Let's explore this exchange, before looking at other effects.
Fig. 3 Columbus taking possession
Historians have researched and investigated why Europeans could conquer the New World with relative ease. There are theories on military and technological supremacy, diplomatic and economic superiority, and other views. All of these have supporting evidence, but none can fully explain how the European conquest happened so quickly.
For example, even though Spain arrived into the territory of the Aztecs with metal armor, cannons, horses, and military tactics to match, they were outnumbered by a civilization that housed the most populous city in the world at that time, Tenochtitlan.
Disease was a huge factor that weakened the Indigenous Peoples of North and South America in the face of European conquest. Diseases carried from the Old World to the New World by the European invaders are estimated to have killed around 90% of the Indigenous Peoples in the Americas who had no immunity to the germs that had infested Europe, Asia, and Africa for centuries.
Fig. 4 The Cowpox Tragedy
The statistics, even the conservative estimates, are staggering. When Columbus landed in Hispaniola in 1492, about one million Indigenous people resided there. Fifty years later, only 500 were still alive. According to some estimates, five to ten million Indigenous people inhabited central Mexico before Cortez and the Spanish. By the end of the 1500s, fewer than one million remained.2
The exchange of disease was not one-sided however as the Europeans contracted syphilis from the Americas. The first recorded case of syphilis in Europe occurred in Spain in 1493, shortly after Columbus’ return. Although less deadly than the diseases exchanged to the Americas, syphilis was more deadly in the 1500s than today, and adequate treatment was unknown.
Though deadly and influential, the exchange of diseases was only part of a broader mutual transfer of plants and animals that resulted directly from the voyages of explorers and colonists to the New World.
Europeans became accustomed to planting and eating American crops. As a result, the diets of both peoples changed. One consequence is the doubling of the world population over the next few centuries as nutrition and food production improved.
The exchange of three other commodities significantly changed the Europeans and Native Americans. In the Americas, Europeans discovered tobacco - smoking and chewing tobacco quickly became popular in the Old World. Tobacco cultivation later formed the basis for the first English colonies in the New World.
Fig. 5 Cultivation of tobacco at Jamestown 1615
In the opposite direction, sugarcane from Africa was imported to the New World. Flourishing in the tropical climates of South America and the Caribbean, the expansion of this crop would lead to the mass use of enslaved labor in the New World.
As critical as these plants were, the introduction of horses was hugely impactful on certain Indigenous cultures in the New World; the Spanish brought with them the first horses Americans had ever seen. Some escaped or were stolen; such horses were traded north through Mexico into the Great Plains of North America, where tribes like the Apache, Comanche, Sioux, and Blackfeet eventually made the horse the focal point of their society.
It is important to understand the variety of goods, diseases and animals exchanged between the old and new worlds. The table below outlines a range of these exchanges.
| The Americas to Europe, Africa, and Asia. | Europe, Asia and Africa to The Americas. |
| Potatoes, corn, pumpkins, tomatoes, squash. | Carrots, lettuce, cabbage, onions, soybeans. |
| Pineapples, avocados. | Bananas, peaches, pairs, apples, grapes, citrus fruits. |
| Peanuts, cashews, cacao. | Grains: wheat, rye, rice, oats, barley. |
| Vanilla, chilli peppers. | Olives, sugarcane. |
| Sunflowers, tobacco. | Weeds: crabgrass, dandelions, thistles, wild oats. |
| Quitine. | Diseases: bubonic plague, whooping cough, measles, yellow fever, typhus, smallpox, influenza, diptheria. |
| Animalds: Turkeys. | Animals: Horses, pigs, cattle, sheep, rats, honeybees. |
Fig. 6 Voyages of Columbus
Exam Tip!
Create a simplified version of the map above and draw images and their route across the Columbian exchange to visualize the goods, plants, animals, and diseases exchanged between the old and new world in the decades following the voyages of Christopher Columbus.
Excluding a small minority of outlier explorers from Europe, there was very little to no interaction between the Indigenous peoples, flora, and fauna of North and South American continents with their counterparts in Europe, Africa, and Asia for around 10,000 years. This separation created genuinely unique biodiversity ranges in almost all aspects of plant and animal life.
Though many plants, animals, spices, and minerals were exchanged over the century following Columbus’s voyage, the most crucial thing was exchanged between the peoples of the New World (North and South America) and the Old World (Europe, Africa, and Asia) was disease.
Diseases carried from the Old World to the New World by the European invaders are estimated to have killed around 90% of the Indigenous Peoples in the Americas who had no immunity to the germs that had infested Europe, Asia, and Africa for centuries.
Though deadly and influential, the exchange of diseases was only part of a broader mutual transfer of plants and animals that resulted directly from the voyages of explorers and colonists to the New World.
These included: cattle, sheep, pigs, horses, llamas, tomatoes, potatoes, yams, squash, sugarcane, rice, wheat, tobacco, and thousands of others.
This exchange period over a century forever changed all societies across the world, as new markets, goods, and nutrition spurred economic and population growth.
1. Christopher Columbus, Journals and Other Documents on the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus, translated by Samuel Eliot Morrison, 72-72, 84.
2. Crosby, A. W., McNeill, J. R., & von Mering, O. (2003). The Columbian Exchange. Praeger.
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What was the Columbian exchange?
The Columbian Exchange was the period of time following Columbus’s first voyage during which indigenous foods, plants, animals, ideas, and diseases were exchanged - intentionally and unintentionally- between the societies and cultures of the New World (North and South America) and the Old World (Africa, Asia, and Europe).
When was the Columbian exchange?
The Columbian exchange took place following the First Voyage of Columbus in 1492 through the following century to the 1600s.
How did the Columbian exchange affect the African people?
The Columbian exchange had an adverse effect on the people of Africa. As disease ravaged the native peoples of the New World, and high labor crops such as sugarcane, rice, and tobacco are introduced to the New World, the societies of the Old World turned to African slaves as their main source of mass labor.
What were some effects of the Columbian exchange?
Some of the effects of the Columbian exchange include the spreading of diseases between the Old and New World. In the New World, diseases, especially smallpox, nearly exterminated native cultures. The exchange of new plants and animals changed both Old and New World societies through economic trade, changes in nutrition, population growth, and cultural adaptations of new commodities.
How did the Columbian exchange affect Europe?
The Columbian Exchange affected Europe by opening up new trade markets for European goods. Introduced new and more nutritious foods to European societies. Triggered the international need for colonization to control commodities. It also introduced new diseases into European society such as syphilis.
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