The Columbian Exchange Historical Essay Example
The Columbian Exchange was a large movement of plants, animals, people, diseases, ideas and technology after 1492. There was this big network between the Americas, Africa and Europe. The Columbian Exchange made what the Americas is today. All between the Europeans, Africans and Indigenous people. I would say the Columbian Exchange transformed the Americas from 1500 and 1750 CE. There are somewhat positive impacts but also, a lot of negative impacts. To a large extent, the Americas really have transformed because of it.
In between the Indigenous community, there has been really drastic changes in the people, appearance wise. As shown on Document 7 called “Las Castas”, an old painting showing all 16th ranks of the Americas. This painting basically symbolizes that there was racial hierarchy. They had everyone; African slaves from the Columbian Exchange, Spaniards from Europe, and indigenous people from the Americas, and every possible mix of all of them on that painting. It looks really problematic because the white Europeans were at the top, meaning being the highest rank, while the indigenous and African slaves were all the way at the bottom, being the lowest rank. That was one of the ways the Columbian Exchange drastically changed the Americas. Not only that but the Aztecs population declined rapidly because of Smallpox, a disease the Europeans brought to the New World. As shown in Document 1, everyone in the illustration seems to have many dots on their bodies and three of them are laying on a bed. I would assume, sick. All of them seem tired. The disease, Smallpox, caused many deaths. It bought a lot of desolation to the people that people just starved to death, not wanting to take care of it because it was going out of control. Not everyone suffered a lot nor did they die but their faces got spoiled by Smallpox.
The Americas as in territory definitely changed. Like in Mexico, for example. Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Aztec Empire, got destroyed after Hernan Cortes and his crew came. As said in Document 3, a poem called “The Broken Spears'' written by an unknown Aztec poet. This Aztec poet wrote his city was lost and dead, houses were roofless and there was blood on the walls. I would assume he is talking about Tenochtitlan because that is where the conquistadors landed and is the capital of the Aztec Empire, the conquistadors absolutely destroyed the city.When this Aztec poet said “The shields of our warriors were its defense, But they could not save it.”, I would assume the Aztecs tried defending themselves from the Spaniards but failed to do so successfully. Also, in Document 2, a excerpt from a memoir by a Spanish soldier under Hernan Cortes called Bernal Diaz del Castillo, it said that Tenochtitlan was very “well built and beautiful” and that the Bernal was “amazed and said that it was like the enchantments they tell of in the legends.” Tenochtitlan was a beautiful sight to see, says the Spanish. Then, Bernal states “Of all these wonders that I then beheld to-day all is overthrown and lost, nothing left standing.” This was after Hernan Cortes and his soldiers came to destroy Tenochtitlan.
As shown in Document 6, it is a map that shows this network of African slaves between the Americas and Africa. Very large numbers of African slaves were transported on ships to the Americas. The Columbian Slave Trade raised the population in the Americas. In Document 4, an excerpt from a journal called “The Columbian Exchange: A History of Disease, Food, and Ideas” by Nancy Qian and Nathan Nunn, the Columbian Slave Trade had its negative impacts on Africa. As a result, nearly twelve million slaves were forcibly taken from Africa to the Americas, resulting in disastrous political, social, and economic problems for the African continent.
Between 1500 and 1750 CE, the Columbian Exchange transformed the Americas, in my opinion. There were mostly negative effects, like the racial hierarchy, the destruction of Tenochtitlan. The Americas have been changed to a significant extent as a result of it. It clear from the documents I’ve provided.
