Essay On The Columbian Exchange

The Columbian Exchange refers to a period of time where cultural and biological exchanges took place between the New World and the Old World. These exchanges were primarily composed of plants, animals, technology and not so good things such as diseases. Following Columbus’s discovery in 1492 the exchange began to take place and continued to play along throughout the years. When the soon to be settlers arrived in the New World, America, they began to notice a lot of plants they had never seen before in Europe. Plants new to the colonists involved beans, squash, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, avocado, sunflowers, and cacao to name a few, but most importantly it was potato and maize that was going to play a huge part in the exchanges. Along with
Although Europe had much more power compared to the Native Americans they ran across within the New World, they still were interested in the exchange of idea and cultures. As for the Native American’s eyes, the Europeans seemed to have everything, and as time when on the Native also benefited from the exchange by developing a written language so it would be easier to establish relationships between the two groups, new forms of farming, and weapon capability. The Native Americans developing a written language, with help of the Europeans, caused their intellectual level to grow. The native Cherokee Language then allowed ideas to be transferred. As for farming, the plow, allowed Europeans to cultivate larger areas of land creating a surplus of plantation for the Natives and the Europeans. The plow was pulled by the horses brought to the New World, helping cut the work time. Another thing completely new to the Natives was guns. Guns helped the Native go hunting for bigger animals, and the Natives were happy to be able to chase bigger herds and kill animals in less than half the time. Although these technological advancements didn’t cross the Atlantic Ocean, it shows how much people began to interact and share ideas with one