Kendall Carlish

The Columbian Exchange was an era of history where Christopher Colombus’s voyage to the
Americas connected almost all of the world in a new network of intercontinental exchange. Prior to
Columbus's voyage, these kinds of connections between Eruope, Asia, Africa, and the Americas were
never seen before. But this era of rapid change occurred at the expense of the Indigenous American
communities and enslaved African people. Although many cultural, agricultural and technological
advancements that laid a foundation for our modern-day way of life can be attributed to the Columbian
Exchange, we can not justify the suffering, widespread death, and oppression of groups of peoples in the
name of progress.
But why did European voyagers set out to find a New World in the first place? Although it could
be coughed up to greed, these voyagers had a genuine curiosity about what else was out in the world, and
in some ways a belief that this was their purpose. In the When Worlds Collide Newsweek from Fall/Winter
of 1991 the author, Kenneth Auchincloss questions the inevitability of the voyage; if it was not Colombus
it would have been someone else, and the outcome would not be much different. Although Columbus was
set out to find a lucrative new trade route to Asia, he was feeding into his curiosity, religious zeal, and
want for a place of his own, which were all common feelings throughout Europe at the time. The search
into the unknown has been a part of European culture for thousands of years, missionaries longed to set
out for somewhere new to preach the Gospel, and merchants needed to find a place of their own, with new
goods and different markets to be able to sell them. But regardless of this explaining why the Europeans
wanted to find a new land, it still does not excuse, or explain, the horrific acts that were taking place once
they reached their destination. Like Auchincloss said, “the spread of Western civilization was built on
intrusion.”
This intrusion led to the transportation of goods from the Old World to the New World, and vice
versa, laid the foundation for a new way of life for people all over the world. Plants and animals which
were exchanged during this intercontinental transfer soon became integral parts of cuisines and cultures
throughout the world. A map from the World History Textbook which illustrates the commodities traded
during the exchange shows corn, tomatoes, and potatoes just being a few of the goods which were
transported from the Americas to Eurasia and Africa, and coffee beans, sugar cane, honey bees, grains,
and livestock all making the long journey from Eurasia and Africa to the Americas. Along with the
exchange of these goods being ever present in our lives around five hundred years later, these plants and
animals which were traded around the globe during this period were revolutionary at the time and made a
huge impact on the lives of people, especially those of European peasants. As stated by an article titled
The Columbian Exchange and written by Lauren Rees, the fact that transferring new species of plants and
animals throughout continents was a convoluted process, which sometimes disrupted the environment and
displaced native plants did not discourage Eastern societies from adopting Western crops. The realization
that crops with a higher caloric value, like potatoes, were able to feed more people and provide people
with the energy they needed to work, spread like wildfire. Soon, American crops were adopted throughout
Central and South America, Europe, and Africa. Because potatoes are root vegetables, meaning they grow
underground and are only harvested once they are ready to be eaten, the food supply of Europeans was
protected against the chance of their armies taking food from their gardens, and allowed them to evade
taxes. Animals played an integral role in the exchange. Because horses, pigs, sheep, and cattle were all
animals which could reproduce without predators being an imminent threat to them, the animal species
were able to flourish in the transfer from Europe to North America. As written in The Columbian
Exchange, an article written by Eman M. Elshaikh and published by Khan Academy, pigs became a
necessity to ocean travel while horses became the golden standard and a useful tool for battle. New
products, patterns of production, trade, distribution, and consumption came into play following the
voyage. Plantation farming and cash crops, like tobacco and cotton, transformed the way the Americas
were organized economically and socially.
In addition to carrying species of plants and animals to the Americas from Europe, the European
voyagers also unknowingly brought diseases with them. The impact of these diseases was not only
devastating, but immediate and instantly became an epidemic. As claimed by Geofrey Cowley, the author
of The Great Disease Migration, smallpox and measles were especially prevalent upon Colombus’s
arrival. Even though these diseases were saddening in all areas that they crossed, the effects were
harrowing and disastrous to the Native populations of the Americas which did not have much immunity
or a capacity for a robust response to the infectious diseases which had been in Eurasia and Africa for
many previous generations. As stated by Eman M. Elshaik in an article published by Khan Academy, this
lack of resistance to the diseases can be attributed to two things; there was not much genetic diversity
within the Americas, and the indigenous people did not have many domesticated animals such as pigs,
cows, sheep, and goats, which are the source of diseases like smallpox and measles. The widespread
presence of these diseases can be shown in this excerpt from The Great Disease Migration by Geofrey
Crawley, “any Indian who received news of the Spaniards could also have easily received the infection
with them.” While the Europeans were able bask in the glory of this “New World '', the indigenous people
continued to fall miserably sick and die in large numbers from smallpox, while their population size
drastically decreased, which in turn encouraged the exchange. As told by Dinesh D’Souza in The Crimes
of Christopher Columbus, In only 150 years the Native American population in North America decreased
from ~15-20 million to only a fraction of that previous number. As stated in The Great Disease
Migration, when the Europeans reached Santo Domingo in 1519, the disease killed up to half of the
indigenous population. As said by Eman M. Elshaik in an article published by Khan Academy, the drastic
decrease in population affected the economy, while the need for labor was still on the rise, which
contributed to the rising presence of the Atlantic slave trade. Slaves then brought diseases like malaria and
yellow fever to the Americas. With diminishing populations and many more rapidly becoming sick, the
horrors of the diseases brought by the Europeans trumps that of the Black Death. It is because of
biological warfare such as this that the Spaniards were to conquer Tenochtitlan and Cusco, which were
some of the largest cities in Mesoamerica.
Furthermore, once Spaniards reached the New World, Columbus already had malicious intent and
questionable plans. In one of Columbus’s journal entries where he is describing his first encounter with
the Arwak people, an indigeonous group from South America and the Caribbean, Columbus describes the
Arwak people as ignorant and describes how the Spaniards could be easily enslaved. Excerpts like “they
would make fine servants” and “they were well built with handsome bodies and good features” shows
how Columbus saw the Native people as less than human, but instead as some kind of object which was
easy to obtain and control. Bartolome de la Casas, a priest who participated in the conquest of Cuba also
turned to his journal in order to reflect on what he saw happening around him. Bartolome described the
Spaniards as conceited people who would force the Native people to carry them for prolonged distances
and would casually cut the Native people in order to test the sharpness of their blades. Bartolome speaks
of Native people who would die in silence while in the mines or completing other strenuous labor,
because they did not have a person in the world to turn to. Bartolome shares how on the island of
Hispaniola, over three million people died in the years 1494 to 1508. By closing this entry with, “I myself
writing this as a knowledgeable eyewitness can hardly believe it” we can begin to understand just how
brutal and inhumane the violence that took place within this time period was. A cruelty so intense and
ubiquitous that there was no real way to process it. In a later entry, Bartolome goes in depth about the acts
that he had witnessed while in Cuba; when spouses would only be able to see each other every eight to ten
months and when they finally met, they were too exhausted and depressed to procreate, newborns died
early because their Mothers were too starved and overworked to feed them, and in the span of just three
months, Bartolome witnessed 7,000 children die in Cuba. This section from the text displays the utter
despair and inhumanity which plagued the Cuban society, “some Mothers even drowned babies from
sheer desperation… husbands died in the mines, wives died at work, and children died from lack of
milk… this land which was so great…was depopulated.” Bartolome closes out this section by saying, “my
eyes have seen these acts so forgein to human nature, and I now tremble as I write.” No end goal or
purpose is able to justify acts this inhumane. A priest taking the liberty to label the acts which were seen
as a byproduct of the Columbian Exchange as “so forgein to humanity” must also mean that the violence
and suffering which was inflicted by the Europeans are those which are against God.
 But this is not the Columbus I knew growing up. The Columbus that sailed the ocean blue in ‘92
and went on a heroic adventure where he discovered our great nation. There was no room for mass
genocide, biological warfare, and bloodshed in those stories. So why did the narrative get so mixed up?
The retelling of Columbus discovering and conquering the Americas only leaves us ignorant to our own
history while erasing the history of so many people. Taking accountability for our actions, and
recognizing their lasting impact, is the first step towards the amends we must make as a nation.
In conclusion, the Columbian Exchange was a revolutionary moment in history, both globally and
in the Americas. The global trade networks and new systems of exchange that were formed affected
cultures, cuisines, and economies all over the world, but too many people had to pay for it. In order to
“progress” as a society, societies were nearly wiped out, and if they were not, the indigenous peoples were
dehumanized, and still face oppression hundreds of years later. For this reason, we can not justify the
suffering, widespread deaths, and oppression that was a byproduct of the Columbian Exchange.