The Columbian Exchange refers to the significant transfer of crops, livestock, ideas, and diseases between the Old World and New World following Columbus's voyage in 1492. This exchange led to major demographic and agricultural changes, with the introduction of crops like potatoes and sugarcane boosting populations and economies in the Old World while devastating Native American populations through introduced diseases. Additionally, it spurred large-scale migrations and the transatlantic slave trade due to labor demands in the Americas.

1. The
Columbian
Exchange:
A History of Disease, Food and Ideas

2. Outline of Presentation
• What is the Columbian Exchange (CE)
• What effect the CE had on the OLD WORLD
• What Effect the CE had on the New WORLD
• What effect the CE had on Africa

3. The Columbian Exchange
New World
Old World

4. What is the Columbian Exchange
The exchange of
CROPS, IDEAS and
DISEASES between the
New World and the
Old World following
the voyage to the
Americas by
Christopher Columbus
in 1492.

5. Crops and Livestock Exchanged
New World to Old World
• Potato
• Maize (corn)
• Chili peppers
• Tobacco
• Pineapple
• Rubber
• Turkeys
Old World to New World
• Sugar
• Coffee
• Horses
• Cattle
• Pigs
• Goats
• Sheep
• Chickens
• Cabbage

6. Diseases That Were Exchanged
Old World to New World
• Smallpox
• Measles
• Typhus,
• Cholera
• Diphtheria
• Scarlet Fever
New World to Old World
• Syphilis

7. Effect of the Columbian
Exchange
Gains
• Crops taken from the NEW WORLD to the OLD
WORLD did so well (i.e. The Potato)
• Likewise crops from OLD to NEW World did
well (i.e. Sugar)
• The discovery of Quinine (a malaria drug)

8. Effects of CE: The Potato
• The New World crop that had the largest
impact on the Old World
– It explains the 12% increase in the average
population of the Old World Countries that
adopted it as staple food i.e. Irish Republic
– It has effect on urbanization in the Old World

9. The Effects of CE: The Sugar Cane
• The Sugarcane is an example of Old World crop
that was effectively cultivated in the New World.
• This resulted in the large-scale production of
sugar in the New World, that, for the first time in
human history, there was a large enough supply
of the commodity that it could be consumed by
the commoner in Europe.
• Hersh and Voth (2009) estimate that the increase
in sugar availability between 1600 and1850
increased English welfare by an amazing 8%

10. Effects of CE: Why Old World Crops
Performed Better in The New World
• The fact that Old World crops flourished in the
New World, and New World crops flourished in
the Old, is not just a coincidence.
a) The two regions were isolated for thousands of
years. The isolation caused separate evolutions
of plants, parasites, and pests. Therefore,
transplanted crops often flourished because they
were able to escape the pests and parasites that
had coevolved with them in their native habitat
b) Similar Climates

11. Effects of CE: The Diseases
• The smallpox, measles, whooping cough,
chicken pox, bubonic plague, typhus etc that
spread from the Old World to the New World
had devastating effects
• Since native populations in the New World
had no previous contact with Old World
diseases, they were immunologically
defenseless

12. Effects of CE:
Deaths in the New World
• It is estimated that 80% – 95% percent of the New
World Population (Native American population) was
decimated within the first 100–150 years following
1492 (Newson, 2001).
– Within 50 years following contact with Columbus and his
crew, the native Taino population of the island of
Hispanola, which had an estimated population between
60,000 and 8 million, was virtually extinct (Cook, 1993).
– Central Mexico’s population fell from just under 15 million
in 1519 to approximately 1.5 million a century later.
– Historian and demographer Nobel David Cook estimates
that, regions least affected lost 80% of their populations;
– those most affected lost their full populations

14. Effect of CE: Slavery and voluntary
migration
• Between the 16th – 19th centuries, over 12 million
Africans were shipped to the New World
(Americas) during the transatlantic slave trade
• This was induced by the high demand for labor in
the Americas since most of the natives had died
• The 19th and 20th centuries also witnessed a
dramatic increase in voluntary migrations from
the Old World.
• Between 1851 and 1924 alone, 45 million people
migrated from the Old World to the Americas

15. Effects of CE: Discovery of Quinine
• The New World discovered quinine, an
effective treatment for malaria
• Quinine became an important “tool of empire”
and significantly enhanced Europe’s ability to
colonize tropical regions of the globe
– The standard view is that Europe’s colonization of
Africa would have been virtually impossible
without quinine.

16. Effect of CE: Syphilis - A New World
Disease
• originated in the New World and was spread in
1493 by Christopher Columbus and his crew, who
acquired it from the natives of Hispaniola through
sexual contact.
• Upon return to Spain, some of these men joined
the military campaign of Charles VIII of France
and laid siege to Naples in 1495.
• the disease was known to have caused great
social disruption throughout the Old World but
not a lot of deaths

17. References
Crosby, Alfred W. The Columbian Exchange: Biological and Cultural
Consequences of 1492. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 2003.
Diamond, Jared. Guns, Germs and Steel. New York: W. W. Norton and
Company, 1997.
Dobyns, Henry F. “Disease Transfer at Contact.” Annual Review of
Anthropology vol. 22 (1993) 273–91.
Nunn, Nathan and Nancy Qian. “The Potato’s Contribution to Population and
Urbanization: Evidence from an Historical Experiment.” NBER Working
Paper 15157 (2009).
Nunn, Nathan and Nancy Qian. “The Columbian Exchange: A History of
Disease, Food, and Ideas.” Journal of Economic Perspectives Vol. 24, No. 2
(Spring 2010): 163–188.