Columbian Exchange

The Columbian Exchange was the result of Christopher Columbus’ voyage to discover the new world. The European population benefitted a lot from all of the things that were discovered in the Americas but the New World underwent the majority of the positive effects as a developing area of the world. Through international trade, the Old World provided crops such as wheat, rice, barely and more.  Before Columbus and his crew set foot on the soil of the Americas, the natives had never heard of or seen any of these crops that we now use in our daily diets.  The New World had crops such as potatoes, maize, fish and turkey, all of which had never been tasted or seen by a European settler.  Similarly, the old world had cows, sheep, horse and goats while the New World had llamas, dogs and alpaca. Clearly after the Columbian Exchange, both the Old and New Worlds had all of the animals and crops that they did not have before (http://columbianexchange.org/). With all of this trade occurring, ecosystems began to diversify and expand.  Through the newly established international trade routes, the new and old worlds created relationships with one another that most likely would not have happened without the discoveries of Columbus and his team. This period of time opened doors that triggered colonization and better communication between nations across the globe (http://cdaworldhistory.wikidot.com/the-columbian-exchange-and-global-trade).  The world would be a completely different place if Columbus did not set sail in 1492 and accidentally find the Americas. His encounters were the catalysts that jumpstarted and groomed the world so that it could develop and prosper into the society and cultural that we live in today.