At the end of the XV century, the Atlantic Ocean has not yet been crossed by anyone or it wasn’t known about someone who did it. The trips that now take us a few hours, at that time could last for months That why for this kind of trips intelligent and brave men are required for such a difficult task. One of these men was called Christopher Columbus. He was determined to cross that ocean hoping to find a route to India in order to trade for spices. before this happened, there were two worlds, that in the middle of the 15th century, they remained without knowing each other. But that wasn’t an obstacle to develop their own cultures. They create different environments where their life was based on different kinds of traditions and biodiversity. Animals and plants stayed in their place of origin until Christopher Columbus interfered and connected the two worlds, makes trades between species creating a term called The Columbian Exchange, which means the transfer of animals, plants, people and technology between the old world and the new world.
During the process of trades between the worlds, Christopher Columbus helped to connect the two worlds, between every trip Columbus started to bring species to the old world and vice versa. Columbus started with the horses. When he landed in South America he brings 16 horses to start the expedition. By the time they were finding new land, they found out that there were people before, that’s when they meet the native Americans, and as they have never seen horses before, so they believed that Christopher Columbus was a god. One of the places influenced by this trade was Argentina. Where they referred that “ Argentina was founded with horses” they think that without the horses they couldn’t be able to exist. The culture is based on men riding horses. They are called Gauchos, skilled horseman that later on influence in America by the Cowboys.
Going further with animals, there was more animal in the middle of these trades. These animal are cattle, pigs, and sheep. These are some of the animals brought from the old world to the new one. During the period of time of the civil war, cattle became to distribute from the south to the north. Going through Texas, continued to Chicago and ended on New York. This, as a solution, to have something to offer to the immigrant that came to the US. At me moment the number of animals because bigger, people saw an opportunity to create a business from the animals mentioned before. Horses became used in the field in hard work of riding people or transporting thing around. Cattle, pigs, and sheep were used in the food industry.
As the animals have an impact, the vegetation has one too. There are things that the old world offered to the new world, such as sugar cane. Where in Africa, was one of the main works of the slaves. This kind of plant was very attractive to the Europeans, so they decided to include this element to their culture. and the end of this time, sugar it came to the hands of the Portuguese and ended up in Brazil, where does the biggest creator of sugar cane stay at this moment.
We can see. That the majority of the things was brought to the new world, but the new world also has an important impact on the old world. For example, the maize(corn), was considered an important vegetable to the new world. Connections with the natives and their belief, corn was a sacred food. Where Europeans saw an opportunity to new kind of food to their people. Also, the potato, became such an important vegetable in Germany, at the point that, the potato was considered the savior of poor people. When the potato arrived in Germany, they found out that the potato does not need special needs to grow, so they adapted and included potato to their menu because it was easier to produce. People living in poor situations found this vegetable a fundamental item to save people who were debating “between life and death”.
Considered the food of poor people, the potato in the middle of mass starvation and disease, there was a time where potatoes were inflected causing the death of thousands. It is hard to believe that the two worlds lived on the same planet without know each other. At the moment that Columbus connected the two worlds, he changed the history of human beings. The Columbian Exchange affected almost every society on earth, the exchange of plants and animals influenced the Americas, Europe, Asia and Africa ways of life. Each world brought Foods that had never been seen before by people. Eventually, they became adapted to their diets. Animals such as the horses helped to the development of cities and cattle helped people to have a food resource. Everything is connected and influenced by today’s world.
