Columbian Exchange Significance

From the late 1400’s to the sixteenth century, European kings and queens were overwhelmed by, what is now known as, the Age of Discovery. With all the extensive overseas exploration by European nations trying to colonize on foreign land and globalize, many explorers took their chance to propose an idea for voyage. Arguably one of the greatest sails man and captain in history, Christopher Columbus first proposed his idea to sail west into the Atlantic Ocean to Portuguese royalty, where it was rejected. With his vision and persistence, he then approached Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand of Spain to propose his ideas and plans, where it was accepted in 1492, and the world was never to be the same again. It was because of Columbus that the New
Christopher Columbus initiated the Columbian Exchange, a rapid and fast paced trade of plants, animals, new technologies, and knowledge from the Old World to the New World and vice versa. The agricultural importance of the Columbian Exchange is significant because it brought important goods such as food and animals to each place of the country. Historian Alfred Crosby describes the significance of the transfer of food crops between the continents by writing: “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.” With the transfer of food crops across continents, from the Old World and the New World and vice versa, the Modern Age was ushered in and agriculturally, Europe and presently known America was on the course of changing its history by adding a larger variety of cattle and vegetables/fruits to its