6 things from the Columbian Exchange

Old World and New World-What are they? The Old world: Europe, Africa, and Asia. This is land that is old to Europeans. They knew about it already The New World: North, South, and Central America. This is land that is NEW to Europeans

Smallpox

Horses

Christianity

6 things from the

Columbian Exchange

Potatoes

Sugar Cane

Tobacco

Christianity: Old World

In response to the Protestant Reformation, the Catholic Church launched its own reform, sending missionaries across the Americas. Spain, a Catholic nation and early colonizer, aimed to spread Catholicism worldwide. This led to a missionary movement in the Americas, where natives were forced to convert to Christianity. Under the threat of Spanish armies, missionaries baptized thousands of natives each day. Some priests, like Bartolome de las Casas, opposed the harsh treatment of Native Americans under the encomienda system. He called for Africans to replace Native labor. By the 17th century, Christianity had spread widely in the New World. Today, 93% of Latin America's population is Christian, with 90% being Roman Catholic.

Tobacco- New World

Rodrigo de Jerez introduced tobacco smoking to Spain from its colonies around 1504. By 1511, it became popular, and by 1531, Europeans were growing it. In the mid-1500s, tobacco was used as medicine, believed to cure illnesses like colic, toothaches, and cancer. People smoked it or used it in other ways. As tobacco's popularity grew, it became valuable. In the 1600s and 1700s, American colonies even used it as currency. In 1619, Virginia celebrated its first Thanksgiving with a good tobacco crop. However, not everyone accepted it, like Shah Sefi, who punished tobacco sellers harshly in 1628. The modern tobacco industry began in the mid-1800s with companies like Philip Morris. By 1889, scientists started to understand nicotine's effects on nerve cells.

Sugar Cane: Old World

In school, the age of exploration is taught as a search for new lands, but much of it was really a hunt for places to grow sugarcane. Columbus planted the first sugarcane in the New World on Hispaniola, which later saw a major slave revolt. Soon after, Jamaica and Cuba had sugar mills, with rainforests cleared and native populations wiped out or enslaved. Over 100,000 African slaves worked on sugar plantations. By the 18th century, sugar and slavery were deeply linked. Islands like Puerto Rico and Trinidad were colonized, cleared, and planted with sugarcane, and when natives died, African slaves replaced them. Until Britain banned the slave trade in 1807, over 11 million Africans were shipped to the New World, most to sugar plantations. Life for slaves on these islands was brutal. Millions died in the fields, factories, or trying to escape. Reformers in Europe began pushing for abolition, and people started boycotting slave-grown sugar, but the demand for sugar kept growing. In 1700, the average English person ate 4 pounds of sugar a year. By 1800, it was 18 pounds, and by 1870, it was 47 pounds. The demand for sugar only increased.

Smallpox: Old World

The arrival of European diseases, whether intentional or not, had a devastating impact on Native Americans, killing many. Diseases like smallpox, influenza, typhus, measles, and others were brought by Europeans. Smallpox was the deadliest. Smallpox spreads easily through the air via droplets or dust, and just being in the same room as an infected person can spread it. After infection, symptoms appear in about 12 days, starting with fever and vomiting, followed by skin blisters. If a person survives, the blisters leave scars. In 1763, the British deliberately gave smallpox-infected blankets to Native Americans, one of the earliest examples of biological warfare. The destruction caused by smallpox gave the Spanish a major advantage in their conquests.

Horses-Old World

Horses were vital to the Spanish in the New World, as they scared the enemy the most. When the Spanish arrived in the new world with horses, the Native Americans were terrified by the sight of them! They were larger than any animals they had seen. Some Aztecs even thought that the man and horse were one creature! After conquering the Native Americans, horses helped the Spanish keep control by transporting goods and messages quickly. They later became key to the cattle industry, thriving in the grasslands of North and South America. Wild horses in the Great Plains descended from those set free during the 1680 Pueblo Revolt. Soon, Native Americans began taming these wild horses, forming a strong bond with them.

Potatoes- New World

In 1619, officials in Burgundy, France, banned the potato, claiming it caused leprosy. In 1774, starving peasants in Prussia refused to eat it. You wouldn't guess based on these attitudes that over the last 400 years the white potato has greatly impacted the world’s food supply. The Spanish discovered the Inca growing it in the Andes Mountains, and since then, despite nearly 200 years of resistance, the potato spread through Europe as families began growing it when grain was taxed or needed by the military. It thrived in northern Europe’s climate and soil.In Ireland, potatoes provided more calories per acre and grew well in rain-soaked land. However, the Irish Potato Famine in the mid-1800s led to 1 million deaths and 1.5 million emigrating. The white potato first arrived in North America in the 1600s but became a staple after Irish immigrants reintroduced it. Today, potatoes and corn are the two main vegetable crops in North America.