The Columbian Exchange

Mihai Negrean

Aug 22, 2022 — 1 min read

The Columbian Exchange started when Columbus got to the New World. He brought various items with him from Europe to exchange with the Native Americans. Because of this, things from the Old World were brought to the New World and vice versa.

Many things were exchanged during this time, like plants, animals, slaves, items, and diseases.

One of the first diseases brought to the New World was syphilis. This disease was not native to North America and came from the Old World because one of the people going there had it, and it spread to the natives.

African slaves were also introduced to North America because the landowners there needed a cheap labor force to produce sugar, tobacco, and other “cash crops”.

Speaking about cash crops… Sugar, coffee, and wheat were all introduced from the Old World and grew quite well. Potatoes, maize (corn), tomatoes, and tobacco were all imported from North America. For example, potatoes were important to the Old World because they could grow basically anywhere and provided food for many poor people.

South America became a large producer of silver for the Old World since it had large deposits of the valuable mineral in the ground there. Furthermore, the wheel was introduced to the New World, which made transporting said silver, as well as basically anything else much easier.

I think that the Columbian exchange was good for all the areas which it affected, although probably better for the people living in the Old World, as they had better immunity to the diseases that they brought to the New World.

Archimedes

Archimedes was a Greek mathematician, physicist, engineer, astronomer, and inventor who lived in the third century BC. He is well known for predicting the use of calculus, and discovering an approximation of pi. While he was in Syracuse, the city was attacked by Rome in the years 213 and 212

Alexander Pope and An Essay on Criticism

Alexander Pope was an English poet born in 1688. He wrote many poems, including English translations of the Iliad and Odyssey. One of his most famous poems, An Essay on Criticism, is written like a guide on how to write and criticize poetry. Some points that Pope makes in his

Literature in the 17th Century

Metaphysical Poets Metaphysical poets were a group of 17th century poets who wrote metaphysical or philosophical poems. Some of the most important metaphysical poets included John Donne, Abraham Cowley, and George Herbert. These poets used conceits, a special type of comparison, to combine "dissimilar images". George Herbert was

Food and Energy

Every animal and plant needs food for energy. Plants get food by making it themselves, but humans and animals have to find food. Food is used in the human body as both energy and building blocks. Large molecules of food that contain mostly oxygen, hydrogen, and carbon are broken down

Read more

Archimedes

Alexander Pope and An Essay on Criticism

Literature in the 17th Century

Food and Energy