The Columbian Exchange had significant global consequences for Europe, Essay

The Columbian Exchange had significant global consequences for Europe, The Americas, as well as for Africa - Essay Example The most significant items that moved from Americas to the other parts of the world were potatoes and corn, which were economical to grow and nourishing. Potatoes supplied fundamental vitamins and overtime the crops became a crucial and steady part of diets across the planet. Nevertheless, traffic across the Atlantic never travelled in one direction since the Europeans introduced several livestock animals in Americas that included horses, sheep, pigs, cattle and sheep. Foods from Africa as well as the crops that came from Asia were moved to the west through the European ships. Some features of the exchange had disastrous impacts on Native Americans since disease was part of the exchange. For instance, diseases brought by Europeans like smallpox and measles resulted in death of many Native Americans (Bulliet 519; â€Å"The Columbian Exchange and Global Trade† 572-574). ... tive populations by diseases demanded labor that was met by forced movement of more than 12 million Africans in the period between the 16th and 19th century (McCook 13; Nunn and Nancy 164). There are many infectious diseases that resulted from Columbian exchange the main killers being malaria, smallpox, measles and chicken pox. Since Native Americans never experienced the diseases prior to the coming of the Europeans, the natives were immunologically defenseless. Before the invasion of the Europeans who initiated Columbian exchange, Native Americans lived in an environment relatively free of diseases since they never suffered from smallpox, measles, chickenpox or malaria. The exchange of food in the old and new worlds during Columbian exchange had considerable consequences in the world history since it increased the global provision of agricultural foods through the introduction of new species. Moreover, the invention of the Americas presented the old world with a vast amount of comp aratively uninhabited land that was suited for farming of certain crops in demand within the old world markets. Food crops such as coffee, soybeans, sugar, oranges and bananas were pioneered in the Americas and the Americas became main suppliers of those crops globally (Nunn and Nancy 163). Introduction of the various calorically rich staple crops had the benefit of growing the crops in climates that were inappropriate for cultivation of other staples. The American food crops have various demands on soil, cultivation and weather compared to former staple crops since they have different growing seasons. The American crops never compete with old world crops but rather complement them since the American crops enabled farmers to produce food in soils that were previously rated as useless