Columbian exchange is the process by which ideas, information, crops, goods, animals, and viruses have been transferred to Americans from Africa, Asia, and Europe and vice versa. It all started with an Italian explorer, Christopher Columbus, and his voyages in 1492. The consequences strongly modified and shaped people, their style of life, and history itself. The Columbian exchange is a very ambivalent historical event, which caused a lot of consequences both for the New World and the Old World.
Columbian exchange made a great contribution to the Europeans’ lives, giving them many goods and raising their economy, however, it was not beneficial for the Native Americans. One of the main reasons for that was that it brought a great number of deadly diseases to The New World, such as measles, cholera, smallpox, typhus, and many others. Native Americans had no immunity to the infections because people had never encountered them before. Furthermore, it brought a great rate of mass violence, and as a consequence of that, Americans suffered from psychological and physical stress.
As it was mentioned, many diseases were brought to America from Eurasia and Africa. One of those was smallpox, which causes fever, vomiting, and a skin rash. It came from domesticated animals, such as cattle, pigs, and camels. This disease was not too dangerous to Africans and Europeans: they had a strong immunity to them because of the constant contact with these animals. However, contact with them was new to Indigenous peoples of the Americas. Until 1492, all domestic animals they had, were ducks, turkeys, and lammas, which did not spread any dangerous diseases. That is why people did not have any immunity to be able to resist new viruses. In addition, people did not have any time and inner power to build resistance to this disease, because of the amount of stress, which was caused by violence. Smallpox killed thousands of people. This virus spread easily in crowded places, especially among kids who were exposed to it. Even thousands of years later, smallpox turned into epidemics. The intimidating fact is, that the Native American population decreased by 99 percent because of these tragedies.
Furthermore, there were many things America exported in the Columbian exchange: crops, tobacco, and coffee. For instance, one of the exported American crops was the potato. It was transported to Africa and became an important product there. Farmers from Asia also adopted it to grow in mountainous areas. Then this crop was adopted by Britain, Ukraine, Russia, China, and India, and caused population growth. This crop may not have had a drastic impact on the world, however, it fed a lot of people and helped them survive. In America, this crop was domesticated about 8000 years ago and nowadays, potato is a crucial worldwide food.
The Columbian exchange brought multiple benefits to Europe. First and foremost, this exchange caused population growth in Europe, due to the transportation of crops from America to the rest of the world (corn, potatoes, cassava, tomatoes, peanuts, pumpkins, pineapples, chili peppers, etc.). In addition, some of the popular drugs were imported, coffee, sugar, and tobacco to many countries and people. The Columbian exchange was very beneficial to the Old World, increasing its population, culture, and economy.
In conclusion, The Columbian exchange is a very ambivalent historical event, which caused a lot of consequences both for the New World and the Old World. On the one hand, it spread many diseases to Indigenous Americans and caused a decrease in population. On the other hand, it brought new species there and transferred many precious crops to the rest of the world.