the Columbian exchange

We are still prickly from the recent divisive celebration of Columbus Day versus Indigenous Peoples Day here at wonder | wander | world. It is stunning how much we still need to decolonize ourselves to annihilate the level of ignorance and passive compliance we tend too easily towards. 

So enough about Christopher Columbus - the symbolic figurehead of evil empire erroneous eradication. An on to the Columbian Exchange - the history of disease and food, ideas and ideals between what we have come to commonly refer to as the New World and the Old World following the voyage to the Americas by that same Christopher Columbus in 1492.

a seaport at the height of mercantilism - Claude Lorrain, Wikimedia Commons

The crossing of the Atlantic by plants like cacao and tobacco illustrates the ways in which the discovery of the New World changed the habits and behaviors of Europeans. Europeans changed the New World in turn, not least by bringing Old World animals to the Americas. 

Christopher Columbus' second voyage was a large-scale colonization and exploration project. Columbus was given 17 ships and over 1,000 men. Included on this voyage, for the first time, were European domesticated animals such as pigs, horses, and cattle. Columbus’ orders were to expand the settlement on Hispaniola, convert the population of Indigenous people to Christianity, establish a trading post, and continue his explorations in search of China or Japan. 

Americas early colonial period

Columbus’ second voyage marked the start of colonialism in the New World, the social importance of which cannot be overstated - slavery, religious intolerance, divisive cultures, war, white supremacy. By establishing a permanent foothold, Spain took the first steps toward its mighty empire of the centuries that followed, an empire that was built with New World gold and silver.

Travelers between the Americas, Africa, and Europe also included microbes - silent, invisible life forms that have profoundly devastating consequences. Native peoples had no immunity to Old World diseases to which they had never been exposed. 

the good, the bad, the ugly of the Columbian exchange

European explorers brought with them chickenpox, measles, mumps, and smallpox, decimating countless populations and wholly eradicating others. Syphilis, a lethal sexually transmitted disease - borne of all the rapes and pillaging - came with travelers from the New World to Europe and wreaked it karma until the discovery of penicillin. 

The Columbian Exchange embodies both the best and the worst of environmental and health results of contact, as well as the cultural shifts produced and its exponential results. The gift that keeps on giving to this very day.