At the end of the fifteenth century, Christopher Columbus managed to convince the royal family of Spain to equip an expedition in search of a sea route to India. The expedition was quite modest, so the trophies brought did not differ in abundance and variety. Nevertheless, cocoa beans, hammock, turkey, tobacco, red hot pepper and much more have firmly entered the everyday life of Europe and the entire Old world.
There were good reasons that allowed Alfred Crosby to consider the exchange between the continents quite equivalent. The flow of goods from the Old World turned out to be more solid, moreover, faster and better organized; Crosby called it the Columbian Exchange.
As you know, the cruising ships delivered plants and animals in both directions. Artichokes, watermelons, peas, cabbage, hemp, onions, coffee, almonds, cucumber, olives, rice, rye and wheat, beets, sugar cane, apples and asparagus arrived in America from Europe. In the opposite direction: avocado, pineapple, peanuts, vanilla, cocoa, hot red pepper, potatoes, tomato, cashews, sunflower and beans. Sheep, donkeys, cows, cats and dogs, horses, pigs, rabbits and chickens were transported from Europe to America. Back: turkey, llama, alpaca, muskrat, nutria and guinea pig.
One of the main contents of the Columbian exchange can be considered the exchange of people. The Indians were brought to Europe almost immediately, but they did not take root there. First, the local population was small. Secondly, it was completely not adapted to life in Europe (the Indians died from European diseases).
The traffic between the Old and the New World is one of the most important exchanges in the history of mankind. Now that logistics has become a familiar thing and goods are stored, packed and delivered around the world with enviable speed and organization, it is difficult to imagine a world without these services. In fact, the world’s global trade was invented by the Spaniards, when for the first time it was established by them between the three parts of the world.