Columbian Exchange

The Columbian Exchange has had a major impact on Europeans and their newly found land of America. This exchange of products brought new life, bad and good to the Europeans and Americans. There were bad products that came out of the exchange like disease and slavery, but this was a two faces exchange; some of the good products that came out of the exchange were widespread crops and increase in livestock. Although there were some positive results of the Columbian exchange, they were not enough to be worth the damage the Columbian Exchange caused to the people, plants, and animals of the New World.
Arguably the worst result of the Columbian exchange was the diseases it brought to the native people of the New World. These diseases include Smallpox, Measles, Chicken Pox, Malaria, Influenza, and Cholera, among many others. Not only did these diseases spread from the Europeans to the natives, but the natives passed Syphilis to the Europeans. It is estimated as many as 80-90% of the Indians died due to disease between 1492 and 1650. It is not known how many Europeans died of Syphilis, but most of the first ones infected died. However, the Europeans were not weakened nearly enough to stop their advance in the New World. The Native Americans could not protect themselves from the onslaught of disease in the same way they couldn’t stop the invading Europeans.
After most of the Native Americans had been killed off by disease and conquerors the Europeans began to bring slaves in to work the large amount of land they now had access to. When most people think of slavery they think of the South in the United States, but the fact is only around 5% of the slaves brought to the New World when to the US. Virginia started importing slaves in 1619 and the practice didn’t end until the Civil War. Even then the discrimination started by the Columbian Exchange did not end. While it is true that slavery had existed long before the Columbian Exchange and still exists some places today,...