The Columbian Exchange: Great Achievements and Terrible Disaster

The Columbian exchange, by its own nature, caused a great increase in trade due to oceanic travel and the meeting of the cultures in the Americas. Both exports and imports increased in all countries involved, boosting economies and mixing the cultures of these civilizations as had never been done before. The Spanish, for example, grew rich from the sugar plantations they had started early on.

Also a result of this increased trade was an increased demand for labor. The Portuguese traded material to African chiefs in exchange for slaves to bring over to the Americas. Slave trading had been common among the African people before this time, but with the increase in demand it became significantly more widespread. The increased magnitude of the African slave trade led inevitably to a resulting demographic catastrophe. Meanwhile, black slaves were being treated as less than human in the Americas, as racism began to flourish. The Native Americans were also exploited in encomiendas, and often died from overwork and exhaustion. Native Americans were also being killed off by diseases, such as smallpox, having been brought over by Europeans and Africans, which they had never been exposed to and had never developed the antibodies to fight off. There was hardship even for those Native Americans who remained, as European weeds and domestic animals drove away game and destroyed crops.