Consequences Of The Columbian Exchange

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“The commingling of Old and New World plants, animals, and bacteria, commonly known as the Columbian Exchange, is one of the more spectacular and significant ecological events of the past millennium.” The European settlement of the Americas and the initiation of Columbian Exchange had an array of, primarily detrimental, consequences on the Native people’s population, agriculture, and biosphere. There were, however, noteworthy, beneficial consequences of the Columbian Exchange on the Americas. Numerous livestock species were introduced to the New World, such as horses, cows, sheep, and chicken. These animals had plentiful valuable uses, such as modes of transportation or as sources of meat and milk for food. Some other resources the Europeans brought included honey, coffee, wheat, and cabbage, which was advantageous for the diets and health of the Natives. A lesser impactful consequence was that Columbus brought eight pigs with him on his first voyage to the American Carribean settlement of Hispaniola in 1493; this proved to be a partially favorable repercussion as the pigs were a potential food source, but an ecological catastrophe as the, “omnivorous swine gobbled roots, snakes, grasses, lizards, fruit, and baby birds and probably contributed to the extinction of hundreds of plants and animals never even recorded.” …show more content…
The majority Natives encountered European white supremacy and presumably racism for the first time in history. European explorers categorized New World inhabitants as “among the most culturally backward people in the world.” European explorers condescended various aspects of the Old World populace’s culture such as their lack of food, clothing, intratribal stability, art, music, and domestic