The Columbian exchange is an idea that originated in the 1970s. The name comes from the voyages that Christopher Columbus went on in his exploration of the new world. The Columbian exchange was the exchange of life form as a result of Columbus voyages. It was the linking of the old world, Europe, Asia, Africa to the Caribbean, and north, South America. This linking caused an ecological exchange that would have environmental and human consequences. The combining of these two worlds was important because it introduced new crops and livestock to each world. Crops like sweet potatoes, pineapples, squash, pumpkins, corn, tomatoes, and many others were brought over to Europe from the Americas. From Europe, they would be transported to Africa and Asia. Livestock such as cattle, sheep, pigs, and horses were transported over from Europe, Africa, Asia to the Americas. Along with livestock came grains like wheat, rice, barley, and oats. Livestock and grain introduced a new diet into the new world.
People were eating foods they hadn’t seen before. With the combining of new world and old world came diseases that brought on many deaths to the new world. Diseases were catastrophic because they were unknown. People didn’t know how to cure or treat illness such as smallpox, malaria, measles. The ones that were that were getting sick were mostly indigenous, they didn’t have much access or knowledge on how to care for such illness. The Columbian exchange was so transformative because of the diseases, crops, grains, and livestock that was interchanged between America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. Industrialization helped in the growth of British economy. Industrialization would establish Europeans living conditions as well as the classes they would associate with. Significant economic effect of the industrial revolution the laissez-faire idea that Adam Smith introduced. Adam Smith was a Scottish philosopher that wrote The Wealth of Nations. This book changed in morals and intellectual grounds the mercantilist system.
Adam Smith believed the economic freedom would lead to a richer society. Economic liberalism or laissez-faire was an economic effect of the industrial revolution because it changed the way economic regulation. it introduces the idea that state should not be involved in economic regulations. A social effect of the industrial revolution is the rise of socialism. Socialist did not accept Adam Smith idea that self- interest is what drove human nature. Socialism wanted to create an equal society for factory owners. Socialist didn’t reject industrial revolution, they wanted to have it be more unprejudiced and fair process. The political effect of the industrial revolution would come with the ideas and written work form Karl Marx. His writing would lead to inspiring a labor movement to change the forces of liberalism. An economic force that drove imperialism comes from the views of the philosopher John Stuart. He argued in support of colonialism. He believed that colonialism would increase British wealth and status. He viewed colonialism as a way to help the indigenous or inferior people of a colonized region. This idea occurred when British took over India. In India society was divided into the colonized and colonizers.
A political force of imperialism the Sepoy rebellion. The Sepoy rebellion occurred in 1857 when Hindu soldiers confronted British white men officials. The rebellion ended savagely by British reinforcement. Sepoy Rebellion led to British Raj, gave British state full control of East India A positive impact of on our world came during the first wave of globalization in the late 19th century. It was in the form of transportation advancement. Coal energy led to the creation of steam powered engine. Steam powered engine changed the transatlantic crossing from being a month long in the early 19th century to less than a month travel by 1912. It was an impact of the world because it introduced a more accessible transportation. A positive impact on the world was the internet and it came during the third wave of globalization from 1991 to present day time. In 1996 there were 30 million worldwide internet users and in 2016 it grew to 3.6 billion. The rapid growth led to the creation of online learning platforms. Being able to communicate with distant relative or able to access online courses are positive globalization impact of technology advancement of third wave. A negative impact was President George W Bush creation of the New World Order, many states struggled in controlling what occurred in their borders.
