The Columbian Biological Exchange
Mixing of
cultures is viewed as a positive occurrence in the modern world.
People from different walks of life, with different practices and
celebrations coming together to share their cultures with one
another. In the ancient world, civilizations were still neophytes in
sharing across empires, sometimes trading more than the tangible
goods they intended. An example of this is the Columbian Exchange,
an interaction between the Old World and the New World started by
Columbus landing in South America in 1492 which led to the exchange
of ideas, diseases, crops, and people between Africa, Europe, and the
Americas.
When
Columbus set out from Spain as Admiral of the Seas, he left in search
of a direct sea route to Asia from Europe which did not require
circumnavigating Africa. Europeans previously used the Silk Road to
safely trade goods with Asia under the Pax Mongolica, but with the
fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks, they were in need of a
safer route.
Bartolomeu
Dias sailed around the tip of South Africa in 1488, but Columbus
believed there was a faster and more direct route to the west by
sailing directly across what was then called the “Ocean Sea” or
modern day Atlantic Ocean. Columbus' plan did meet with some
controversy. Scholars of the time had long since believed the planet
was round and also correctly believed that Asia was a greater
distance away than Columbus estimated. Although there was no
knowledge of the Americas, most scholars of the era believed the best
path was around the tip of Africa.
Harnessing
the power of the trade winds, Columbus caught the easterlies directly
to the modern time Bahamas from the Canary Islands. Upon reaching
land, he came across native people adorned in gold whom he easily
overpowered and directed to lead him to the source. He found the
population overall docile and held some to return to Europe with as
servants for his royal patrons. As he continued sailing between the
islands, he met other tribes and made favourable alliances with them,
even leaving some of his own men to settle in some places. There was
an aspect of spreading Christianity to the New World as well. Seeing
the natives as a godless society, Columbus himself wrote, “I think
they can very easily be made Christians, for they seem to have no
religion. If it pleases our Lord, I will take six of them to Your
Highnesses when I depart, in order that they may learn our language.”
(Columbus)
Religion
was a common guise used as an explanation for the lustful drive
empires had for rampant colonization. As the Christian doctrine
instructs, they spread Christianity as they searched the seas. Every
land the Europeans touched would be left with an imprint of their
society and ideals, sharing their economic and social systems with
each new culture. In turn, Europeans learned a few tricks from the
New World, such as a cure for malaria, quinine, derived from the bark
of a tree found in the Andes mountain chain. Access to this
treatment eased the European colonization of malaria-ridden tropical
regions such as in Africa. Native Americans also developed a process
of making crude rubber from latex, a product of high importance in
the late 1800s as insulation for electricity and tires for motorized
vehicles.
When two
worlds collide, even the simplest of actions can have an unexpected
reaction. Although unintentional, the Europeans brought along
debilitating diseases with them across the Atlantic, ones which the
New World population had never interacted with and had no natural
immunities to resist them. An estimated 80 to 95 percent of Native
American populations succumbed to smallpox after it was introduced to
the Americas by the Europeans. Other Old World diseases introduced
include measles, chicken pox, malaria, yellow fever, influenza, the
common cold, the bubonic plague, and more. (Exchange)
Since
the New World was younger, it was relatively disease free, although
it is believed to have introduced the Europeans to syphilis and
possibly tuberculosis. Venereal syphilis became an epidemic in the
Old World within five years of Columbus returning from the New World.
Modern day syphilis is tame compared to the strain of the middle
ages, which had severe and painful symptoms that often resulting in
death.
Interacting
with native tribes introduced the Europeans to New World crops
previously unknown, some of which had profound effects on the Old
World. A long list of crops often taken for granted in the modern
era were introduced to the Old World during the Columbian Exchange,
including potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, cacao beans, tobacco, and
coca.
One
example would be potatoes, originally from the Andes mountain range
in Argentina and first domesticated in Peru, it is the modern world's
fourth-largest crop. A cheap and easy crop to grow, the potato was
so heavily relied upon by the poorer Irish population in 1845 that a
crop failure caused the death of an estimated 1 million and another
million more to emigrate to the New World. A crop brought from the
New World to the Old World ended up fueling one of the largest
immigrations to the New World 400 years later.
Small
additions to diets could also have a large effect. Peppers
originating from Southern Brazil became signature tastes for many
cultures under the umbrella of colonization. These peppers were rich
in nutrients including capsicum, a chemical which irritates the oral
membranes and queues reactions to aid digestion. These peppers also
have more vitamin A than any other edible plant as well as other
important nutrients. Adding them to foods in even small amounts can
pump up the nutrition of lack luster diets. The bold flavours of the
capsicum peppers became popular all around the world, often being
paired with dairy containing casein to temper the burn. In modern
times, capsaicin has also been known to help treat pain and
inflammation.
Not all
of the crops adapted from the New World had such positive effects.
Two highly addictive vices, tobacco and coca, the plant from which
cocaine is produced, are also New World crops the Europeans became
enamoured with. Each are known for their chemical effects and have
since been huge aspects of international trade. In early America,
tobacco leaves were so valuable they replaced conventional currency
for many transactions. Both drugs were often long viewed as socially
acceptable for recreational use, and even were used for some medical
benefits. It took years for the adverse side effects to become known
and well accepted enough to change the social perception of said
drugs and their use. Cocaine in the modern world is illegal and has
a huge underground market which billions of dollars flow through
yearly.
Crops
trading between the hemispheres often fared better than in their
native lands, being free of their natural inhibitors such as insects
and disease. Old World crops such as coffee and sugar cane, and New
World crops such as tobacco, corn, tomatoes, and potatoes grew higher
yields when traded to new hemispheres. Production of some of these
these crops, particularly sugar cane, tobacco, and cotton became huge
industries in the Americas, taking over the lands and leading to the
enslavement of the natives to work the fields. The natives resisted
forced labour, willing to commit suicide and infanticide to avoid
indentured servitude. This resistance plus the introduction of many
new diseases wiped out the native population quickly, leaving a need
for new, cheap labour supply.
Searching
for an alternative, the Portuguese were the first to purchase and
ship slaves for the New World from Africa. Slavery was not a new
concept, a hold over from ancient civilizations, especially for hard
labour that would otherwise be very expensive to find workers to
perform. The goal was to find labour in a quick and cost-efficient
manner. Initially, the Europeans were welcomed at African port
cities, buying and selling captured enemy tribesmen and felons of the
kingdoms. These captured slaves, a by-product of wars between
different groups in Africa, were sold to Europeans by other Africans
to be packed into cargo ships and transferred across the Ocean to
work in the Americas. Slaves would harvest crops grown in the
Americas which were then brought back to the Old World to be sold on
the European market, the profits of which would in turn be used to
purchase more slaves. This process is called the trade triangle, and
lasted for over 400 years, enslaving over 11 million people during
its time.
Few
would argue that the actions following Columbus' arrival in the New
World were a shining point in history, but the Columbian Exchange
created an environment for the world to be as it is today. As
described by historian Alfred Crosby, “The coming together of the
continents was a prerequisite for the population explosion of the
past two centuries, and certainly played an important role in the
Industrial Revolution. The transfer across the ocean of the staple
food crops of the Old and New Worlds made possible the former.”
(Yale) The stronger and nutritionally diverse crops added into the
world diets helped improve nutrition and provided strong crops to
bolster the population and the urbanization movement. Accepting the
positive and negative effects, the Columbian Exchange played an
important role in the development of the modern world through the
intercontinental exchange of ideas, diseases, crops, and people.
Bibliography
Judge,
Edward H., and John W. Langdon. "Chapter 23: Africa and the
Atlantic Slave Trade, 1400 - 1800." Connections:
A World History. Boston,
MA: Pearson, 2012. 556-79. Print.
Nunn,
Nathan, and Nancy Qian. "The Columbian Exchange: A History of
Disease, Food, and Ideas." Journal
of Economic Perspective Spring
24.2 (2010): 163-88.Www.econ.yale.edu.
Yale University. Web. 13 Nov. 2013.
"Atlantic
Slave Trade." Wikipedia.
Wikimedia Foundation, 13 Nov. 2013. Web. 13 Nov. 2013.
"Christopher
Columbus." Wikipedia.
Wikimedia Foundation, 13 Nov. 2013. Web. 13 Nov. 2013.
"Columbian
Exchange." Wikipedia.
Wikimedia Foundation, 11 Sept. 2013. Web. 13 Nov. 2013.
"History
of Slavery." Wikipedia.
Wikimedia Foundation, 13 Nov. 2013. Web. 13 Nov. 2013.
No comments:
Post a Comment