Transcript Document 7185501

The Columbian Exchange
“European Immigrants are all over
the place, which requires
explanation”
Alfred Crosby
The Columbian Exchange
• “The Columbian
Exchange” is the
sharing of cultures that
transformed the lives of
two continents.
• Its was a two-way
process with people,
goods, and ideas
moving back and forth.
• The three main
elements are: Plants,
animals and disease
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Plants
Animals
Diseases
Demographic
Mineral Wealth
Trade Items
Technology
Language
Religion
Economy
Government
The “Columbian Exchange”
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Squash
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Avocado
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Peppers
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Sweet Potatoes
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Turkey
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Pumpkin
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Tobacco
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Quinine
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Cocoa
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Pineapple
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Cassava
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POTATO
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Peanut
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TOMATO
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Vanilla
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MAIZE
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Syphilis
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Trinkets
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Liquor
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GUNS
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Olive
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COFFEE BEAN
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Banana
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Rice
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Onion
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Turnip
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Honeybee
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Barley
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Grape
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Peach
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SUGAR CANE
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Oats
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Citrus Fruits
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Pear
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Wheat
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HORSE
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Cattle
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Sheep
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Pigs
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Smallpox
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Flu
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Typhus
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Measles
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Malaria
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Diptheria
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Whooping Cough
The Exchange can be positive
or negative in its effects
• In the exchange that was made
widespread by Columbus, Disease was
the most negative for Indian peoples
• 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
God’s will that Indians died
• There was 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
and therefore subject to illness as a
punishment
New World Diseases
• 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
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 exchanged
• 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 vector of
disease
• There is little or no evidence to think that
Europeans intentionally infected trade items
for trade with Indians to kill them
Mainland outbreaks
• Diseases, especially smallpox, were
transported from the Caribbean to the
mainland by the Cortez expedition in the
1630s
• A sick African infected the Aztecs of Mexico
City
• Incubation of smallpox is 14 days—this
causes the disease to spread over great
distances
• Smallpox killed half the Iroquois populations
in 1738 and again in 1759
• Entire tribe of Mandans died in the winter of
1837-38
Why were Europeans immune?
• Has everything to do with their original
environments
• Most pathogens originate with animals
or insects
• Domesticated animals and plants were
more numerous in Europe
• Greater diversity meant more ecological
protection
Disease
• “The greatest genocide in human history.”
• Central Mexico:
– Indigenous population decline from 25 million to
less than one million with a century. Around
Mexico and Central America population decline by
as much as 90 percent.
• Caribbean:
– In the island of Hispaniola population declined
from one million to 1492 to 46,000 by 1512.
• North America
– 90 percent of the Indian population where gone
within a century of the Puritan landing on
Plymouth Rock.
Demographic Impact
1) Indian population decrease
2) African Diaspora
3) European Migration
4) Mixing of Populations (miscegenation)
Indian Population Decrease
• Diseases:
– In Europe an outbreak of small pox would kill 30
percent of those infected. In the American the
small pox death rate was nearly 50 percent.
• War:
– The battle of Tenochtitlan lasted eight-day where
240,000 natives perished.
• Labor:
– Many Natives are worked to death
African Diaspora
• A decrease of Native America population
prompted to import labor from Africa.
• They worked in mines, agriculture, port
towns, and sugar mills.
• African slaves were imported to all parts of
America.
European Migration
• A relative small number of European males migrated
Latin America and the Caribbean during colonial
period.
• To give an example from Mexico and Central America
in 1570 only about 60,000 or 2 percent of the total
population 3,096,000, was classified as white.
• By 1650 that white population had doubled to
120,000 roughly 6 percent of the depleted total of
1,880,000.
• At the close of the colonial era in 1825 about 1 million
or 14 percent of the total population of just over 7
million was white.
Miscegenation
• The intermixing of Indians, Africans, and
Europeans created a multi-racial society.
• Color became status symbol.
• Complex race structure.
– Peninsulares: Europeans born in the the Iberian
Peninsula.
– Creoles: Children of European descent born in
America.
– Mestizo: Offsprings of European and Indian
unions.
– Mulatto: Children of European and African unions.
– Zambos: Indians and Black.
– Coyotes: Mestizos and Indian…..
PLANTS
Americas
Europe
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Maize
Potato
Tomato
Tobacco
Beans
Cacao
Cotton
Sugar
Rice
Wheat
Coffee
Banan
a
• Grapes
The silent invasion of America
• Plants were brought by Europeans to the
New World to see how they would flourish as
cash crops
• Plants and seeds also harbored old world
weeds (pathogens)
• Old world plants, weeds and animals were all
more opportunistic because of their original,
more competitive environments
• Crowded out indigenous plants and animals
Animals
Americas
Europe
• Turkey
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Cattle
Horse
Pigs
Sheep
Missions
What was the importance of the Missions?
• Missions played a key role in the colonizing
the United States.
• Foundation of American cities:
– Founders of key USA cities such as San Antonio,
El Paso, Santa Fe, Tucson, San Diego, Los
Angeles, Monterrey, and San Francisco.
– Franciscans founded 40 thriving mission in Florida
and the Southwest.
• Acculturation Center- agricultural practices,
cultural, and religious.
Treasures
from the Americas!
Mercantilism
The economy and trade
are essential to the health
and safety of the nation.
1.Get as much gold and silver
as you can.
2.Establish a favorable balance
of trade.
3.Get colonies.