Columbian exchange

File:BRI Columbian Exchange.jpg

In 1972, Alfred W. Crosby, an American historian at the University of Texas at Austin, published the book The Columbian Exchange,{{sfn|Crosby|1972}} thus coining the term. His primary focus was mapping the biological and cultural transfers that occurred between the Old and New Worlds. He studied the effects of Columbus's voyages between the two – specifically, the global diffusion of crops, seeds, and plants from the New World to the Old, which radically transformed agriculture in both regions.{{cite web |last=Gambino |first=Megan |title=Alfred W. Crosby on the Columbian Exchange |work=Smithsonian Magazine |date=October 4, 2011 |url=http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/alfred-w-crosby-on-the-columbian-exchange-98116477/?no-ist |access-date=October 19, 2018}}

His research made a lasting contribution to the way scholars understand the variety of contemporary ecosystems that arose due to these transfers.{{cite book |last1=Carney |first1=Judith |title=Black Rice: The African Origins of Rice Cultivation in the Americas |url=https://archive.org/details/blackriceafrican00carn |url-access=registration |date=2001 |publisher=Harvard University Press |location=United States of America |pages=[https://archive.org/details/blackriceafrican00carn/page/4 4–5]}}{{cite book |last=de Vorsey |first=Louis |editor1-last=McIlwraith |editor1-first=Thomas F. |editor2-last=Muller |editor2-first=Edward K. |title=North America: The Historical Geography of a Changing Continent |year=2001 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |location=Lanham, MD |page=27 |quote=Thanks to…Crosby's work, the term 'Columbian exchange' is now widely used… |chapter=The Tragedy of the Columbian Exchange}} His 1986 book Ecological Imperialism presented further research in the field.{{sfn|Crosby|2004}}

The scientific consensus is that humans first came to the New World from Siberia thousands of years ago. There is little additional evidence of contacts between the peoples of the Old World and those of the New World, although the literature speculating on pre-Columbian trans-oceanic journeys is extensive. The first inhabitants of the New World brought with them small domestic dogs and, possibly, a container, the calabash, both of which persisted in their new home.{{cite journal |doi=10.1073/pnas.0509279102 |pmid=16352716 |pmc=1311910 |title=An Asian origin for a 10,000-year-old domesticated plant in the Americas |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |volume=102 |issue=51 |pages=18315–20 |year=2005 |last1=Erickson |first1=D. L. |last2=Smith |first2=B. D. |last3=Clarke |first3=A. C. |last4=Sandweiss |first4=D. H. |last5=Tuross |first5=N. |bibcode=2005PNAS..10218315E |doi-access=free }} The medieval explorations, visits, and brief residence of the Norsemen in Greenland, Newfoundland, and Vinland in the late 10th century and 11th century had no known impact on the Americas,{{cite web |title=The Norse in the North Atlantic |url=https://www.heritage.nf.ca/articles/exploration/norse-north-atlantic.php |website=Heritage: Newfoundland & Labrador |access-date=15 July 2021}} though the small perennial Rumex acetosella (sheep's sorrel) appeared in Greenland at that time.{{cite book |last=Edwards |first=Kevin J. |last2=Erlendsson |first2=Egill |last3=Schofield |first3=J. Edward |title=Biogeography in the Sub‐Arctic |chapter=Landnám and the North Atlantic Flora |publisher=Wiley |date=20 April 2021 |isbn=978-1-118-56147-8 |doi=10.1002/9781118561461.ch9 |page=185–214}}

Many scientists accept that possible contact between Polynesians and coastal peoples in South America around the year 1200 resulted in genetic similarities and the adoption by Polynesians of an American crop, the sweet potato.{{cite news |last=Dunham |first=Will |title=Study shows ancient contact between Polynesian and South American peoples |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-science-polynesia/study-shows-ancient-contact-between-polynesian-and-south-american-peoples-idUSKBN2492EU |website=Reuters |date=July 8, 2020 |access-date=15 July 2021}} However, it was only with the first voyage of the Italian explorer Christopher Columbus and his crew to the Americas in 1492 that the Columbian exchange began, resulting in major transformations in the cultures and livelihoods of the peoples in both hemispheres.{{cite encyclopedia |last1=McNeill |first1=J. R. |author1-link=J. R. McNeill |last2=Sampaolo |first2=Marco |last3=Wallenfeldt |first3=Jeff |date=30 September 2019 |origyear=28 September 2019 |title=Columbian Exchange |url=https://www.britannica.com/event/Columbian-exchange |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |location=Edinburgh |publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200421055242/https://www.britannica.com/event/Columbian-exchange |archive-date=21 April 2020 |url-status=live |access-date=5 September 2021}}

=== Of plants ===

{{See also|New World crops|Agriculture in Mesoamerica}}

File:The Florentine Codex- Maize.tif by the Spanish friar Bernardino de Sahagún provided an early depiction of maize, one of the plants the Spanish brought to the Old World.]]

Because of the new trading resulting from the Columbian exchange, several plants native to the Americas spread around the world, including potatoes, maize, tomatoes, and tobacco.{{Cite magazine |last=Ley |first=Willy |date=December 1965 |title=The Healthfull Aromatick Herbe |department=For Your Information |magazine=Galaxy Science Fiction |pages=88–98}} Before 1500, potatoes were not grown outside of South America. By the 18th century, they were cultivated and consumed widely in Europe and had become important crops in both India and North America. Potatoes eventually became an important staple food in the diets of many Europeans, contributing to an estimated 12 to 25% of the population growth in Afro-Eurasia between 1700 and 1900.{{Cite journal |last1=Nunn |first1=Nathan |last2=Qian |first2=Nancy |date=2011 |title=The Potato's Contribution to Population and Urbanization: Evidence from a Historical Experiment |journal=Quarterly Journal of Economics |volume=126 |issue=2 |pages=593–650 |doi=10.1093/qje/qjr009 |pmid=22073408 |hdl=10.1093/qje/qjr009 |hdl-access=free }} The introduction of the potato to the Old World accounts for 47 percent of the increase in urbanization between 1700 and 1900.{{harvnb|Nunn|Qian|2010}} Cassava was introduced from South America by the Portuguese in the 16th century,{{cite web |url=http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/suprtubr.htm |title=Super-Sized Cassava Plants May Help Fight Hunger In Africa |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131208143623/http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/suprtubr.htm |archive-date=December 8, 2013 |publisher=Ohio State University}} and gradually replaced sorghum and millet as Africa's most important food crop.{{cite web |url=http://scitizen.com/biotechnology/maize-streak-virus-resistant-transgenic-maize-an-african-solution-to-an-african-problem_a-28-925.html |title=Maize Streak Virus-Resistant Transgenic Maize: an African solution to an African Problem |website=Scitizen |date=August 7, 2007}} Spanish colonizers of the 16th century introduced new staple crops to Asia from the Americas, including maize and sweet potatoes, contributing to population growth there.{{cite web |url=http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/special/china_1950_population.htm |title=China's Population: Readings and Maps |publisher=Columbia University, East Asian Curriculum Project |date=24 September 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090924212813/http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/special/china_1950_population.htm |archive-date=September 24, 2009 }} On a larger scale, the introduction of potatoes and maize to the Old World improved people's nutrition throughout the Eurasian landmass, enabling more varied and abundant food production.{{sfn|Crosby|2003|p=177}} Cassava and maize can have negative consequences when overused (for example, the nutritional diseases pellagra and konzo).

The discovery of the Americas provided the Old World with new arable landscapes suitable for growing sugarcane and coffee. Coffee, introduced in the Americas circa 1720 from Africa and the Middle East, and sugarcane, introduced from the Indian subcontinent to the Spanish West Indies, subsequently became the primary commodity crops and exported goods of extensive Latin American plantations. Introduced to India by the Portuguese, chili peppers and potatoes from South America in turn became integral parts of Indian cuisine, and starting the process of making curry an international dish.{{cite book |last=Collingham |first=Lizzie |author-link=Lizzie Collingham |title=Curry: A Tale of Cooks and Conquerors |url=https://archive.org/details/curry00lizz |url-access=registration |year=2006 |chapter=Vindaloo: the Portuguese and the chili pepper |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |isbn=978-0-19-988381-3 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/curry00lizz/page/47 47–73]}}

Because crops traveled widely but at least initially their endemic fungi did not, for a limited time yields were somewhat higher in the new regions to which they were introduced, a form of ecological release or "{{visible anchor|yield honeymoon}}". However, the exchange of pathogens has continued alongside globalization, and crops have declined back toward their endemic yields.{{cite journal |last1=Drenth |first1=André |last2=Guest |first2=David I. |title=Fungal and Oomycete Diseases of Tropical Tree Fruit Crops |journal=Annual Review of Phytopathology |publisher=Annual Reviews |volume=54 |issue=1 |date=2016-08-04 |doi=10.1146/annurev-phyto-080615-095944 |pages=373–395|pmid=27491435 }}

File:Intikawan Amantani.jpg terraces on Taquile are used to grow traditional Andean staples such as quinoa and potatoes, alongside wheat—a European introduction.]]

The Spanish were the first Europeans to grow cacao, in 1590. Though cacao was usually consumed by European populations in the form of sweets and was at first treated as an expensive luxury item, chocolate helped with fatigue and provided energy. As for vanilla, the pods of the plant after chemical treatment acquired an aroma, which was then used both in cooking and in perfumery.

Rice, originally domesticated in China, became widely planted in the New World; European planters there relied upon the skills of African slaves to cultivate it.{{Cite journal |last=Carney |first=Judith A. |date=2001 |title=African Rice in the Columbian Exchange |jstor=3647168 |journal=The Journal of African History |volume=42 |issue=3 |pages=377–396 |doi=10.1017/s0021853701007940 |pmid=18551802 |s2cid=37074402}} Georgia, South Carolina, Cuba, and Puerto Rico were major centers of rice production during the colonial era. Enslaved Africans brought their knowledge of water control, milling, winnowing, and other agrarian practices to the fields. This widespread knowledge among African slaves eventually made rice a staple food in the New World.{{cite book |first=Seaman Ashahel |last=Knapp |title=Rice culture in the United States |url=https://archive.org/details/CAT87201521 |edition=Public domain |year=1900 |publisher=U.S. Department of Agriculture |pages=[https://archive.org/details/CAT87201521/page/n6 6]–}}

Citrus fruits and grapes were brought to the Americas from the Mediterranean. At first planters struggled to adapt these crops to New World climates, but by the late 19th century they were cultivated more consistently.{{cite web |last=McNeill |first=J.R. |title=The Columbian Exchange |url=https://www.ncpedia.org/anchor/columbian-exchange |website=NCpedia |publisher=State Library of North Carolina |access-date=23 October 2018}} Bananas were introduced into the Americas in the 16th century by Portuguese sailors, who brought them from West Africa. Despite this early introduction, they were little consumed in the Americas as late as the 1880s, when large plantations were established in the Caribbean.{{cite web |last1=Gibson |first1=Arthur |title=Bananas & Plantains |url=http://www.botgard.ucla.edu/html/botanytextbooks/economicbotany/Musa/index.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120614121141/http://www.botgard.ucla.edu/html/botanytextbooks/economicbotany/Musa/index.html |archive-date=June 14, 2012 |url-status=dead |publisher=University of California, Los Angeles}} The Manila galleon trading network introduced American plants such as chayote and papaya into Southeast Asia; these were incorporated into the cuisines there.{{cite journal |last1=Amano |first1=Noel |last2=Bankoff |first2=Greg |last3=Findley |first3=David Max |last4=Barretto-Tesoro |first4=Grace |last5=Roberts |first5=Patrick |title=Archaeological and historical insights into the ecological impacts of pre-colonial and colonial introductions into the Philippine Archipelago |journal=The Holocene |date=February 2021 |volume=31 |issue=2 |pages=313–330 |doi=10.1177/0959683620941152|bibcode=2021Holoc..31..313A |hdl=21.11116/0000-0006-CB04-1 |hdl-access=free }}

Long before the arrival of the Spaniards, cultivators brought wild tomatoes from Central America to South America. Soon after Columbus's visit, tomatoes were brought to Spain, and from there to other European countries, including Italy. In 1544, Pietro Andrea Mattioli, a Tuscan physician and botanist, wrote that the tomato was eaten fried in oil there.{{cite journal|last=McCue |first=George Allen |title=The History of the Use of the Tomato: An Annotated Bibliography |journal= Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden |year=1952 |volume= 39 |issue=4 |pages=291–292 |doi=10.2307/2399094 |jstor=2399094 |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/20101657}} The first Italian cookbook to include tomato sauce, Lo Scalco alla Moderna ("The Modern Steward"), was written by Italian chef Antonio Latini and was published in two volumes in 1692 and 1694. In 1790, the use of tomato sauce with pasta appeared for the first time, in the Italian cookbook L'Apicio Moderno ("The Modern Apicius"), by chef Francesco Leonardi.L'Arte della cucina in Italia, Emilio Faccioli, Einaudi, Milano, 1987

Alongside the intentional introductions of cultivated plants that were Crosby's focus,{{cite journal |last=Sauer |first=Jonathan D. |title=[Review:] The Columbian Exchange: Biological and Cultural Consequences of 1492 |journal=Economic Botany |year=1973 |volume=27 |issue=3 |pages=348-349 |jstor=4253437}} many wild plants including weeds of cultivation, such as dandelions and grasses,{{cite web |title=The Columbian Exchange |url=https://americainclass.org/the-columbian-exchange/ |publisher=National Humanities center |access-date=3 December 2024 |date=2015}} were transferred in both directions, permanently affecting the ecology of many parts of the world.{{cite journal |last=Hancock |first=James F. |title=Fifty Years Later—The Legacy of Alfred Crosby’s “The Columbian Exchange: Biological and Cultural Consequences of 1492” |journal=Economic Botany |volume=77 |issue=1 |date=2023 |doi=10.1007/s12231-022-09563-6 |doi-access=free |pages=82–102}}

Initially, the Columbian exchange of animals largely went in one direction, from Europe to the New World, as the Eurasian regions had domesticated many more animals. Horses, donkeys, mules, pigs, cattle, sheep, goats, chickens, dogs, cats, and bees were rapidly adopted by native peoples for transport, food, and other uses. The Plains Indians, for example, made extensive use of horses for hunting.{{cite encyclopedia |editor-last=Francis |editor-first=John Michael |editor1-link=J. Michael Francis |encyclopedia=Iberia and the Americas: Culture, Politics, and History: a Multidisciplinary Encyclopedia |title=Columbian Exchange—Livestock |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OMNoS-g1h8cC&pg=PA303 |year=2006 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=978-1-85109-421-9 |pages=303–308}}

File:The Florentine Codex- The Conquest of Mexico.png|Spanish conquest of Mexico, 1519–1521, with horses, pigs, cattle, and sheep being landed from ships. Florentine Codex.

File:George Catlin - Buffalo hunt.jpg|Native Americans learned to use horses, dramatically expanding their hunting range. George Catlin, 1844

While mesoamerican peoples, Mayas in particular, already practiced apiculture,{{Sfn|Valadez Azúa|2004|p=5}} producing wax and honey from a variety of bees, such as Melipona or Trigona,{{Sfn|Valadez Azúa|2004|pp=6–7}} European bees (Apis mellifera)—were more productive, delivering a honey with less water content and allowing for easier extraction from beehives—were introduced in New Spain, becoming an important part of farming production.{{Cite journal |last=Valadez Azúa |first=Raúl |title=Retomando la apicultura del México antiguo |year=2004 |journal=Veterinaria |volume=4 |issue=2 |page=11 |publisher=Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México |url=https://fmvz.unam.mx/fmvz/imavet/v4n2a04/v4n2a04.pdf}}

The Mapuche of Araucanía were fast to adopt the horse from the Spanish, and improve their military capabilities as they fought the Arauco War against Spanish colonizers.{{cite book |last=Dillehay |first=Tom D. |date=2014|editor-last=Dillehay |editor-first=Tom |title=The Teleoscopic Polity |chapter=Archaeological Material Manifestations |publisher=Springer |pages=101–121 |isbn=978-3-319-03128-6 |author-link=Tom Dillehay }}{{cite book |last=Bengoa |first=José |author-link=José Bengoa|title=Historia de los antiguos mapuches del sur |year=2003 |publisher=Catalonia |location=Santiago |isbn=978-956-8303-02-0 |language=es|pages=250–251}} Until the arrival of the Spanish, the Mapuches had largely maintained chilihueques (llamas) as livestock. The Spanish introduction of sheep caused some competition between the two domesticated species. Anecdotal evidence of the mid-17th century shows that by then sheep far outnumbered llamas. The decline of llamas reached a point in the late 18th century when only the Mapuche from Mariquina and the Huequén next to Angol raised the species.{{cite journal |last1=Torrejón |first1=Fernando |last2=Cisternas |first2=Marco |last3=Araneda |first3=Alberto |date=2004 |title=Efectos ambientales de la colonización española desde el río Maullín al archipiélago de Chiloé, sur de Chile |language=es |trans-title=Environmental effects of the Spanish colonization from de Maullín river to the Chiloé archipelago, southern Chile |url=http://www.scielo.cl/scielo.php?pid=S0716-078X2004000400009&script=sci_arttext&tlng=en |journal=Revista Chilena de Historia Natural |volume=77 |issue= 4 |pages=661–677 |doi=10.4067/s0716-078x2004000400009|doi-access=free }} In the Chiloé Archipelago the introduction of pigs by the Spanish proved a success. They could feed on the abundant shellfish and algae exposed by the large tides.

In the other direction, the turkey, from North America, and the Muscovy duck, from Mexico and South America, were New World domestic animals transferred to Europe.{{sfn|Crosby|1972|p=212}}

=== Of diseases ===

{{further|Native American disease and epidemics|Influx of disease in the Caribbean|Virgin soil epidemic|Cocoliztli epidemics}}

File:400Behandlung der Syphilis.jpg, Vienna, 1498]]

The first manifestation of the Columbian exchange may have been the spread of syphilis from the native people of the Caribbean Sea to Europe. The history of syphilis has been well-studied, but the origin of the disease remains a subject of debate.{{cite journal |last1=Kent |first1=M.E. |last2=Romanelli |first2=F. |title=Reexamining syphilis: an update on epidemiology, clinical manifestations, and management |journal=Annals of Pharmacotherapy |volume=42 |issue=2 |pages=226–236 |date=February 2008 |pmid=18212261 |doi=10.1345/aph.1K086 |s2cid=23899851 }} There are two primary hypotheses: one proposes that syphilis was carried to Europe from the Americas by the crew of Christopher Columbus in the early 1490s, while the other proposes that syphilis previously existed in Europe but went unrecognized.{{cite journal |last1=Farhi |first1=D. |last2=Dupin |first2=N. |title=Origins of syphilis and management in the immunocompetent patient: facts and controversies |journal=Clinics in Dermatology |date=Sep–Oct 2010 |volume=28 |issue=5 |pages=533–558 |pmid=20797514 |doi=10.1016/j.clindermatol.2010.03.011}} The first written descriptions of syphilis in the Old World came in 1493.{{cite news |last=Smith |first=Tara C. |title=Thanks Columbus! The true story of how syphilis spread to Europe |quote=The first cases of the disease in the Old World were described in 1493. |url=http://qz.com/580139/thanks-columbus-the-true-story-of-how-syphilis-spread-to-europe/ |access-date=1 September 2016 |work=Quartz |date=December 23, 2015}} The first large outbreak of syphilis in Europe occurred in 1494–1495 among the army of Charles VIII during its invasion of Naples.{{cite journal |last=Franzen |first=C. |title=Syphilis in composers and musicians—Mozart, Beethoven, Paganini, Schubert, Schumann, Smetana |journal=European Journal of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases |date=December 2008 |volume=27 |issue=12 |pages=1151–1157 |pmid=18592279 |doi=10.1007/s10096-008-0571-x |s2cid=947291 }}{{cite magazine |last=Romm |first=Cari |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2016/02/the-neverending-story-of-the-origins-of-syphilis/463401/ |title=A New Skeleton and an Old Debate About Syphilis |magazine=The Atlantic |date=February 18, 2016}}{{cite magazine |last=Choi |first=Charles Q.| title=Case Closed? Columbus Introduced Syphilis to Europe |url=http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/case-closed-columbus/ |access-date=1 September 2016 |magazine=Scientific American |date=December 27, 2011}} Many of the crew members who had served with Columbus had joined this army. After the victory, Charles's largely mercenary army returned to their respective homes, spreading "the Great Pox" across Europe, which killed up to five million people.{{cite news |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/study-traces-origins-of-syphilis-in-europe-to-new-world-1.717866 |title=Study traces origins of syphilis in Europe to New World |access-date=15 January 2008 |last=CBC News Staff |date=January 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080607124901/http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2008/01/14/syphilis-columbus.html |archive-date=7 June 2008 |url-status=live}}{{cite journal |last=Harper |first=Kristin |title=On the Origin of the Treponematoses: A Phylogenetic Approach |journal=PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases |date=January 2008 |volume=2 |issue=1 |page=e148 |doi=10.1371/journal.pntd.0000148 |pmid=18235852 |pmc=2217670 |display-authors=etal |doi-access=free }}

The Columbian exchange of diseases towards the New World was far deadlier.{{sfn|Nunn|Qian|2010|page=165}} The peoples of the Americas had previously had no exposure to Old World diseases and little or no immunity to them.{{sfn|Nunn|Qian|2010|page=165}} An epidemic of swine influenza beginning in 1493 killed many of the Taino people inhabiting Caribbean islands. The pre-contact population of the island of Hispaniola was probably at least 500,000, but by 1526, fewer than 500 were still alive. Spanish exploitation was part of the cause of the near-extinction of the native people.{{sfn|Mann|2011|pages=11–12, 414}}File:Aztec smallpox victims.jpg drawings of victims of smallpox. Florentine Codex ]]

In 1518, smallpox was first recorded in the Americas and became the deadliest imported Old World disease. Forty percent of the 200,000 people living in the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan, later Mexico City, are estimated to have died of smallpox in 1520 during the war of the Aztecs with conquistador Hernán Cortés.{{cite web |last=Gunderman |first=Richard |title=How smallpox devastated the Aztecs – and helped Spain conquer an American civilization 500 years ago |url=https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/how-smallpox-devastated-the-aztecs-and-helped-spain-conquer-an-american-civilization-500-years-ago |website=PBS |date=February 23, 2019 |access-date=15 July 2021}} Epidemics, possibly of smallpox, spread from Central America, devastated the population of the Inca Empire a few years before the arrival of the Spanish.{{cite book |last=D'Altroy |first=Terence N. |title=The Incas |date=2003 |publisher=Blackwell Publishing |location=Malden, Massachusetts |isbn=978-0631176770 |page=76}} The ravages of Old World diseases and Spanish exploitation reduced the Mexican population from an estimated 20 million to barely more than a million in the 16th century.{{cite book |last1=Merrill |first1=Tim L. |last2=Miro |first2=Ramon |title=Mexico: A Country Study |date=1996 |publisher=Library of Congress |location=Washington, D.C. |url=http://countrystudies.us/mexico/53.htm}}

The indigenous population of Peru decreased from about 9 million in the pre-Columbian era, to 600,000 in 1620.{{cite journal |last=Denevan |first=William M. |title=Demographic Collapse: Indian Peru, 1520–1630 by Noble David Cook |journal=The Americas |date=October 1983 |volume=40 |issue=2 |pages=281–284 |doi=10.2307/980770 |jstor=980770 |s2cid=148174483 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/980770 |access-date=28 May 2021}} An estimated 80–95 percent of the Native American population died in epidemics within the first 100–150 years following 1492. Nunn and Qian also refer to the calculations of the scientist David Cook: in some cases no one survived due to diseases. The deadliest Old World diseases in the Americas were smallpox, measles, whooping cough, chicken pox, bubonic plague, typhus, and malaria.{{sfn|Nunn|Qian|2010|pages=164–165}} Yellow fever was brought to the Americas from Africa, probably by the slave trade. Many people in Africa had acquired immunity. Europeans suffered higher rates of death than did people of African descent when exposed to yellow fever in the Americas, as numerous epidemics swept the colonies and sugar plantations.{{cite journal |last1=Chippaux |first1=Jean-Philippe |last2=Chippaux |first2=Alain |title=Yellow fever in Africa and the Americas: a historical and epidemiological perspective |journal=The Journal of Venomous Animals and Toxins Including Tropical Diseases |volume=24 |issue=1 |date=25 August 2018 |page=20 |doi=10.1186/s40409-018-0162-y |doi-access=free|pmid=30158957 |pmc=6109282 }}

On the other hand, European exploration of tropical areas was aided by the New World discovery of quinine, the first effective treatment for malaria. Cinchona trees from the Andes were processed and quinine was obtained from their bark. Europeans suffered from this disease, but some indigenous populations had developed at least partial resistance to it. In Africa, resistance to malaria has been associated with other genetic changes among sub-Saharan Africans and their descendants, which can cause sickle-cell disease.{{sfn|Nunn|Qian|2010|page=164}} The resistance of sub-Saharan Africans to malaria in the southern United States and the Caribbean contributed greatly to the specific character of the Africa-sourced slavery in those regions.{{cite journal |last=Esposito |first=Elena |date=Summer 2015 |title=Side Effects of Immunities: the African Slave Trade |url=http://eh.net/eha/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Esposito.pdf |journal=European University Institute |access-date=October 30, 2018 |archive-date=November 12, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201112014228/https://eh.net/eha/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Esposito.pdf |url-status=dead}}

== Cultural exchanges ==

File:Evangelización por la Orden Franciscana.jpg]]

The movement of people between New and Old Worlds caused cultural exchanges, extending to what Pieter Emmer has called "a clash of cultures". This involved the transfer of European values to indigenous cultures, such as the concept of private property in regions where property was often viewed as communal, universal monogamy (though many indigenous peoples were already monogamous), the role of women and children in the social system, and different concepts of labor, including slavery.{{cite journal |last=Emmer |first=Pieter |title=The Myth of Early Globalization: The Atlantic Economy, 1500–1800 |journal=European Review |volume=11 |issue=1 |date=February 2003 |pages=37-47 |doi=10.1017/S106279870300005X }} Christianity was brought to the indigenous peoples by priests and monks from Europe.{{cite web |last1=Christensen |first1=Mark |title=Columbian Exchange |url=https://billofrightsinstitute.org/essays/columbian-exchange |publisher=Bill of Rights Institute |access-date=3 October 2024}} Tobacco was used in the Old World as medicine and currency, while in the New World, it was the subject of religious customs. Some New World peoples such as the Mapuche of Araucania resisted the adoption of Spanish technology, holding to their ancestral customs.{{cite journal |last=Dillehy |first=Tom |title=Reflections on Araucanian/Mapuche Resilience, Independence, and Ethnomorphosis in Colonial (and Present-day) Chile |journal=Chungará (Arica) |date=2016 |volume=48 |issue=4 |url=https://www.scielo.cl/scielo.php?pid=S0717-73562016000400013&script=sci_arttext |access-date=27 April 2024}} Indigenous people have often been seen as static recipients of transatlantic encounters, but thousands of Native Americans crossed the ocean during the sixteenth century, some by choice.{{cite journal |last=Pennock |first=Caroline |date=2020-06-01 |title=Aztecs Abroad? Uncovering the Early Indigenous Atlantic |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ahr/rhaa237 |journal=The American Historical Review |volume=125 |issue=3 |pages=787–814 |doi=10.1093/ahr/rhaa237}}

{{further|Atlantic slave trade}}

File:1670 virginia tobacco slaves.jpg in Virginia, 1670]]

The Atlantic slave trade consisted of the involuntary immigration of 11.7 million Africans, primarily from West Africa, to the Americas between the 16th and 19th centuries, far outnumbering the about 3.4 million Europeans who migrated, most voluntarily, to the New World between 1492 and 1840.{{sfn|Mann|2011|page=286}} The prevalence of African slaves in the New World was related to the demographic decline of New World peoples and the need of European colonists for labor. Another reason for the demand for slaves was the cultivation of crops such as sugar cane suitable for the climatic conditions of the new lands.{{sfn|Nunn|Qian|2010|page=181}} The Africans were less likely to die, too, from those diseases that had been brought to the New World.{{cite web |last1=Gates |first1=Louis |title=100 Amazing Facts About the Negro |url=http://www.pbs.org/wnet/african-americans-many-rivers-to-cross/history/how-many-slaves-landed-in-the-us/ |website=PBS |date=January 2, 2013 |publisher=WNET |access-date=25 October 2018}} Enslaved Africans helped shape an emerging African-American culture in the New World. They participated in both skilled and unskilled labor. For example, slaves were involved in handicraft production. They could also work as ordinary workers, and as managers of small enterprises in the commercial or industrial sphere.{{cite book |last=Watson |first=James L. |author1-link=James L. Watson (anthropologist) |title=Asian and African Systems of Slavery |year=1980 |publisher=Basil Blackwell |location=University of California Press Berkeley and Los Angeles, California |pages=34}} Their descendants gradually developed an ethnicity that drew from the numerous African tribes as well as European nationalities.{{cite book |last=Carney |first=Judith |title=Black Rice |url=https://archive.org/details/blackriceafrican00carn |url-access=registration |date=2001 |publisher=Harvard University Press |pages=[https://archive.org/details/blackriceafrican00carn/page/2 2–8]}}{{sfn|Nunn|Qian|2010|page=181}} The descendants of African slaves make up a majority of the population in some Caribbean countries, notably Haiti and Jamaica, and a sizeable minority in most American countries.{{sfn|Nunn|Qian|2010|page=183}}

• Arab Agricultural Revolution
• Early impact of Mesoamerican goods in Iberian society
• Great American Interchange
• List of food plants native to the Americas
• Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact theories
• Transformation of culture

{{reflist}}

• {{cite book |last=Crosby |first=Alfred W. |author-link=Alfred W. Crosby |title=The Columbian Exchange: Biological and Cultural Consequences of 1492 |year=1972 |publisher=Greenwood Press |isbn=978-0-8371-5821-1 |url=https://archive.org/details/columbianexchang00cros }}

:* {{cite book |last=Crosby |first=Alfred W. |author-mask=————— |title=The Columbian Exchange: Biological and Cultural Consequences of 1492 |publisher=Praeger |year=2003}}

• {{cite web |last=Crosby |first=Alfred W. |author-mask=————— |title=The Columbian Exchange: Plants, Animals, and Disease between the Old and New Worlds |publisher=National Humanities Center |date=December 2001 |url=https://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/nattrans/ntecoindian/essays/columbianb.htm}}
• {{cite book |last=Crosby |first=Alfred W. |author-mask=————— |title=Ecological Imperialism: The Biological Expansion of Europe, 900-1900 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |publication-place=Cambridge; New York |date=2004 |orig-year=1986 |isbn=978-0-521-83732-3}}
• {{cite book |last=Mann |first=Charles C. |author-link=Charles C. Mann |title=1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created |date=2011 |publisher=Alfred A. Knopf |location=New York |isbn=9780307265722}}
• {{cite journal |last1=Nunn |first1=Nathan |last2=Qian |first2=Nancy |year=2010 |title=The Columbian Exchange: A History of Disease, Food, and Ideas |journal=Journal of Economic Perspectives |volume=24 |issue=2 |pages=163–188 |jstor=25703506 |doi=10.1257/jep.24.2.163 |citeseerx=10.1.1.232.9242 |url=http://www.econ.yale.edu/~nq3/NANCYS_Yale_Website/resources/papers/NunnQianJEP.pdf |access-date=May 24, 2018 |archive-date=August 11, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170811035828/http://www.econ.yale.edu/~nq3/NANCYS_Yale_Website/resources/papers/NunnQianJEP.pdf |url-status=dead }}

• [http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/nattrans/ntecoindian/essays/columbian.htm The Columbian Exchange: Plants, Animals, and Disease between the Old and New Worlds] by Alfred W. Crosby (2009)
• 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, by Charles C. Mann (2005); at [https://books.google.com/books?id=KPKMDQAAQBAJ Google Books].
• Specht, Joshua; Stockland, Etienne (2017). The Columbian Exchange. CRC Press.
• [https://books.google.com/books?id=styODQAAQBAJ Indian Givers: How the Indians of the Americas Transformed the World] by Jack Weatherford (2010)

• "[https://web.archive.org/web/20150510082054/http://www.accessexcellence.org/RC/Ethnobotany/page5.php Foods that Changed the World]"—Steven R. King

{{Agriculture footer}}

{{Indigenous peoples of the Americas}}

{{Pre-Columbian North America}}

{{Globalization}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Columbian exchange}}

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