Columbian+Exchange

 Established in the 1500's, after the arrival of Christopher Columbus, the Columbian Exchange was a biological, cultural, and ecological exchange between the two hemispheres. Livestock, humans, plants, and disease were traded between the New and Old Worlds. Many affects of the exchange were beneficial. Certain livestock and plants provided food for the population, such as: potatoes and horses. Potatoes provided food for thousands of starving, poor workers in Scotland, and horses provided transportation and improved hunting for Native Americans. Not all affects were positive. Diseases were epidemic and decimated populations, especially Indians susceptible to Smallpox. Slavery was also included in the Columbian Exchange and lasted for over three hundred years. Ten to fifteen million Africans were shipped to the Americas between 1500 and 1850.

http://spider.georgetowncollege.edu/htallant/courses/his111/columb.htm

http://www.historynow.org/06_2007/historian2.html

Created by Christina Oelnser Dec. 10, 2008