explain in simple terms

452 Chapter 22 . Tensores Chapter 2/2 463 fourteenth century the spread of bubonic plague caused dras- areas of Europe, for example, smallpox was responsible for American Crops Food crops native to the Americas also the demographic losses when epidemic disease struck Eurasian 10 to 15 percent of deaths, but most victims were younger played prominent roles in the Columbian exchange. Ameri- peoples traveled in massive numbers mostly to the Western Hemisphere but also to south Africa, Australia, and Pacific and north African lands, than age ten, Although its effects were tragic for individual can crops that took root in Africa, Asia, and Europe include maize, potatoes, bea islands where diseases had diminished indigenous popula- families and communities, smallpox did not pose a threat to tions, while equal numbers of Asian peoples migrated to Biological Exchanges Yet the Columbian exchange-the tomatoes, peppers, peanuts, manioc, European society as a whole because it did not carry away papayas, guavas, avocados, s, and cacao, to name tropical and subtropical destinations throughout much of global diffusion of planits, food crops, animals, human popula- adults, who were mostly responsible for economic produc- some of the most important. (A less nutritious transplant the world. In combination, those migrations have profoundly tions, and disease pathogens that took place after voyages of tion and social organization was tobacco.) Residents of the Eastern Hemisphere only influenced modern world history. exploration by Christopher Columbus and other European gradually developed a taste for American crops, but by the mariners-had consequences much more profound than any of Epidemic Diseases and Population Decline When eighteenth century maize and potatoes in particular had con- the earlier rounds of biological exchange. Unlike the earlier infectious and contagious diseases traveled to previously un- tributed to a sharply increased number of calories in Eurasian The Origins of Global Trade processes, the Columbian exchange involved lands with radi- exposed populations, however, they touched off ferocious diets. Maize became especially important in China because Besides stimulating commerce in the Eastern Hemisphere, the cally different flora, fauna, and discases, For thousands of epidemics that sometimes destroyed entire societies, Begin- it grew in eco-niches unsuitable for rice and millet produc- voyages of European merchant mariners encouraged the emer years the various species of the Eastern Hemisphere, the West- ning in 1519, epidemic smallpox ravaged the Aztec Empire. tion. With the exception of Bengal (India), Asian lands gence of a genuinely global trading system. European manu- ern Hemisphere, and Occania had evolved along separate often in combination with other diseases, and within a cen- proved less welcoming to the potato. But in northern Eu- factured goods traveled west across the Atlantic in exchange lines. By creating links between these biological zones, the tury the indigenous population of Mexico had declined by rope, the potato eventually became a staple crop, from Ire- for silver from Mexican and Peruvian mines and agricultural European voyages of exploration set off a round of biological as much as 90 percent, from about 17 million to 1.3 million. land to Russia, because of its impressive nutritional qualities. products such as sugar and tobacco, both of which were in exchange that permanently altered the world's human geogra By that time Spanish conquerors had imposed their rule on American bean varieties added protein to diets around the high demand among European consumers. Trade in human phy and natural environment. Mexico, and the political, social, and cultural traditions world, and tomatoes and peppers provided vitamins and beings also figured in Atlantic commerce. European textiles. Beginning in the carly sixteenth century, infectious and of the indigenous peoples had either disappeared or fallen zesty flavors in lands from western Europe to China. Peanuts guns, and other manufactured goods went south to west contagious diseases brought devastating demographic losses under Spanish domination. and manioc flourished in tropical southeast Asian and west Africa, where merchants exchanged them for African slaves. to indigenous peoples of the Americas and the Pacific is- Imported diseases took their worst tolls in densely popu African soils that otherwise would not produce large yields who then were forcibly transported to the tropical and sub- lands, The most virulent disease was smallpox, but measles, lated areas such as the Aztec and Inca empires, but they did or support large populations. The Americas also supplied tropical regions of the Western Hemisphere to work on diphtheria, whooping cough, and influenza also took heavy not spare other regions. Smallpox and other diseases were medicinal plants. Derived from the bark of the Peruvian cin- plantations. tolls. Before the voyages of exploration, none of these mala- so easily transmissible that they raced to remote areas of chona tree, bitter-tasting quinine was the first effective treat- dies had reached the Western Hemisphere or Oceania, and North and South America and sparked epidemics even before ment for malaria and proved vital to Europeans trying to The Manila Galleons The experience of the Manila galleons the peoples of those regions consequently had no inherited the first European explorers arrived in those regions. By the survive in tropical areas inhabited by the mosquitoes that illustrates the early workings of the global economy in or acquired immunities to those pathogens. In the Eastern 1530s smallpox may have spread as far from Mexico as spread the disease. the Pacific Ocean basin. For 250 years, from 1565 to 1815, Hemisphere, these diseases had mostly become endemic: the Great Lakes in the north and the pampas of Argentina Spanish galleons-sleek, fast, heavily armed ships capable of they claimed a certain number of victims from the ranks of in the south. Population Growth The Columbian exchange of plants carrying large cargoes-regularly plied the waters of the infants and small children, but survivors gained immunity When introduced to the Pacific islands, infectious and and animals fueled a surge in world population. In 1500, as Pacific Ocean between Manila in the Philippines and to the diseases through exposure at an early age. In some contagious diseases struck vulnerable populations with the Eurasian peoples were recovering from epidemic bubonic Acapulco on the west coast of Mexico. From Manila they same horrifying effects as in the Americas, albeit on a plague, world population stood at about 425 million. By 1600 took Asian luxury goods to Mexico and exchanged them for it had increased more than 25 percent to 545 million. Human silver. Most of the precious metal made its way to China, smaller scale. All told, disease epidemics sparked by the where a thriving domestic economy demanded increasing Columbian exchange probably caused the worst demo- numbers increased less rapidly during the next century, reach- ing 610 million in 1700. But thereafter they increased at a quantities of silver, the basis of Chinese currency. In fact, the 114 graphic calamity in all of world history. Between 1500 and demand for silver was so high in China that European mer- 1800, upwards of 100 million people may have died of dis- faster rate than ever before in world history. By 1750 human eases imported by Europeans into the Americas and the population stood at 720 million, and by 1800 it had surged to chants exchanged it for Chinese gold, which they later traded 900 million, having grown by almost 50 percent during the profitably for more silver as well as luxury goods in Japan. Pacific islands. previous century. Much of the rise was due to the increased Meanwhile, some of the Asian luxury goods from Manila Food Crops and Animals Over the long term, however, nutritional value of diets enriched by the global exchange of remained in Mexico or went to Peru, where they contributed the Columbian exchange increased rather than diminished food crops and animals. to a comfortable way of life for Spanish ruling elites. Most, however, went overland across Mexico and then traveled by human population because of the global spread of food crops and animals that it sponsored. In the long term, a Migration Alongside disease pathogens and plant and ship across the Atlantic to Spain and European markets. better-nourished world was an important contributing factor animal species, the Columbian exchange also involved Environmental Effects of Global Trade As the demand in the growth of the world's population, which began in the the spread of human populations through transoceanic mi- for silver fueled growing volumes of global trade, pressures fell eighteenth century and continues in the present. Out of Eur- gration, both voluntary and forced. During the period from asia to the Western Hemisphere traveled wheat, rice, sugar, 1500 to 1800, the largest contingent of migrants consisted on several animal species that had the misfortune to become of enslaved Africans transported against their will to South prominent commodities on the world market. Fur-bearing bananas, apples, cherries, peaches, peas, and citrus fruits. American, North American, and Caribbean destinations. A animals came under particularly intense pressure, as hunters Wheat in particular grew well on the plains of North Amer- smaller but still sizable migration involved Europeans who sought their pelts for sale to consumers in China, Europe, ica and on the pampas of Argentina, regions either too dry Smallpox victims in the Aztec Empire. The disease killed or too cold for the cultivation of maize (corn). Africa con- traveled to the Americas as settlers. In some cases, they and North America. During the seventeenth century, an esti- most of those it infected and left disfiguring scars on tributed yams, okra, collard greens, and coffee. Dairy and O settled on lands that had previously been depopulated by mated two hundred to three hundred thousand sable pelts survivors. meat-yielding animals-horses, cattle, pigs, sheep, goats, and nfectious and contagious diseases, while in others they flowed annually from Siberia to the global market, and eabody Museum, Harvard University (2004.24.29636). chickens-went from Europe to the Americas, where they forced out existing populations through violence and forced during the eighteenth century, more than sixteen million sharply increased supplies of food and animal energy. relocation. During the nineteenth century, European North American beaver pelts fed consumers' demands for