Columbian Exchange Research Paper

Words: 568
Pages: 3

The triangular trade system that linked Africa, Europe, and the Americas during the Age of
Exploration is partly known as the Columbian Exchange, but also known as the Atlantic Slave Trade.
These two names are used because, in the case of the former, various goods were exchanged between
Europe and North and South America, with Columbia being a key colony and region in South America where one of the European powers, Spain, first set up this colony. This trade system is also called the
Atlantic Slave Trade because slaves were imported from Africa to the colonies in the Americas and to mainland Europe. Generally, the Americas exported large numbers of crops and raw materials, Europe exported manufactured goods, and Africa generally exported
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The Americas were also changed dramatically by the slave trade, with demographics shifting as many Africans started to live there, even though it was by force. Europe continued to supply the Americas with manufactured goods, and while this made the American colonies rely on Europe more, it also allowed many regions within the
Americas to focus on agriculture instead of manufacturing.
6. The Columbian Exchange gave the most benefits to Europe. Arguably, the negatives brought by the exchange to Europe were relatively minimal compared to its effects on Africa and the Americas. With regards to negative outcomes, the Americas, with the sheer number of people who died due to exposure to diseases, were the continent most negatively affected by the Columbian Exchange. With gains that include new sources of food and vast amounts of raw materials, Europe received many benefits from the Americas. The African people that were exported from their homeland and enslaved served as labor for both the Americas and Europe, and while Africa lost these people to this brutal practice, there were regimes on the African mainland itself who profited greatly from this trade. Yet it was the