Which of the following best describes the impact of the age of exploration on the economy?

Biological and Cultural Exchanges During the Age of Exploration

The Age of Exploration brought together people from Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Americas, often for the first time. When people meet, they often exchange something. It can be a thing (a piece of silk) or an idea (the way to make silk). It can even be a disease.

Two main types of exchanges took place during the Age of Exploration. Biological exchanges include living things such as plants, animals, and diseases. Cultural exchanges include goods, technology, and ideas.

The exchanges that began during this period affected the way people lived on every continent. You�ve already seen several examples of this impact in Chapter 33 of History Alive! The Medieval World and Beyond. Here we take a deeper look.

Biological Exchanges: Plants, Animals, and Diseases

The spread of plants, animals, and diseases was one of the biggest effects of the Age of Exploration. Let�s look at some examples of how biological exchanges affected people around the world.

The AmericasExplorers and conquistadors brought many new plants to the Americas. They brought European crops such as barley and rye. They brought wheat, which was originally from the Middle East. They brought plants that had originally come from Asia, including sugar, bananas, yams, citrus fruit, coffee, rice, and sugarcane.

New plants created new economies in the

Americas . They also contributed to the creation of huge slave societies. By the 1600s, the Portuguese were growing sugar, bananas, and citrus fruit on large plantations in Brazil and the Caribbean. They began importing African slaves to work on these plantations. This was the beginning of a slave trade that uprooted millions of Africans over the next few centuries. Later, African slaves were brought to the American South to grow cotton, tobacco, rice, and other crops.

In addition to plants, Europeans brought domesticated animals such as cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, and horses. Eventually, people began to breed horses, cattle, and sheep in North America,

Mexico, and South America. With the introduction of cattle, many people took up ranching as a way of life. Cattle took over native grasslands as well as areas that Native Americans had used for growing food.

In

North America, the horse dramatically changed how many Native Americans lived. They soon learned to use horses for hunting and warfare. Several groups gave up farming and became nomads who hunted buffalo.

Along with new plants and animals, Europeans also brought deadly diseases. This biological exchange had the greatest impact of all on Native Americans. Native people had no resistance to such diseases as measles, smallpox, mumps, whooping cough, influenza, chicken pox, and typhus. Millions fell sick and died. Diseases brought by Europeans wiped out as much as 90 percent of the native population of the

Americas.

With so many people dying, there was a huge shortage of available workers in the

Americas. This was one reason Europeans turned to African slaves to work their plantations. In this way, the new diseases had an indirect impact on Africa as well.

Over the next few centuries, the arrival of African slaves changed the makeup of the population in the

Americas. The population also changed because of marriages between Europeans and native people. The children of these marriages were mestizos, or a mixture of races. Europeans, Africans, and mestizos eventually replaced much of the native population. Europe, Africa, and Asia

Diseases and animals from the

Americas had relatively little impact on other continents. However, new plants and crops from the Americas changed people�s lives all over the world.

Europeans brought many native plants from the

Americas back to Europe. People in Europe were introduced to maize (a type of corn), potatoes and sweet potatoes, beans and squashes, tomatoes, avocados, papaya, pineapples, peanuts, chili peppers, and cacao (the raw form of cocoa).

New crops from

America changed how Europeans lived and farmed. The potato, for example, had an enormous impact. It was nutritious and easy to grow. It helped people create a stable food supply. As a result, the population surged. Eventually, the growth in population contributed to major social changes, such as the Industrial Revolution.

Plants and crops from the

Americas also spread to Africa and Asia. They transformed people�s diets and lives on those continents, too. Maize became a staple food in North Africa, Egypt, southern Africa, China, and India. Peanuts and cassava (an eatable root) provided new foods to West Africa. The chili pepper became a popular ingredient in Asian cooking.

The potato influenced Asia as well as

Europe. Because potatoes grow well in the mountains, the Chinese were encouraged to settle in mountainous areas. The sweet potato became the third most important crop in China , after rice and wheat.

Cultural Exchanges: Goods, Technology, and Ideas

Increasing contact between people led to many exchanges of goods, technology, and ideas. Here are some examples of how cultural exchanges affected people�s lives around the world.

The Americas

The arrival of Europeans in the

Americas had many long-lasting effects. One devastating impact was the destruction of the Aztec and Inca Empires. Guns, a European technology, helped the conquistadors conquer these great empires. Over time, guns also changed Native American warfare and enabled Indians to fight more effectively against white settlers.

Two other important imports from

Europe were language and religion. In southern North America, Central America, and South America, many native people learned Spanish and Portuguese. They often combined these languages with their own to create new dialects. Many also became Roman Catholic because of the influence of Spanish and Portuguese missionaries. New forms of religion arose as native people blended Christianity with their own beliefs.Europe

The desire for riches was a major reason that Europeans explored the

Americas. As you learned in Chapter 33, gold and silver from the Americas changed European economies. Goods from Africa and Asia, such as gold and spices, also changed life in Europe.

Over time, Europeans established colonies in the

Americas. Many natural resources and luxury items flowed from the colonies to Europe. From North America, Europeans got tobacco, fish, furs, and whale oil. Raw materials such as cotton fed the growth of manufacturing industries and trade. Europeans also acquired new knowledge. For example, they learned farming techniques from Native Americans that helped them survive in the Americas.Africa

The slave trade had an enormous impact on Africa, especially in

West Africa. Slavery forever changed the lives of millions of enslaved Africans who were taken to the Americas. It also affected the lives of other Africans. Tribal wars erupted as chiefs sought captives to sell as slaves. Europeans interfered in African political affairs as they supported one chief over another in the hope of getting slaves.

European religion and languages had a relatively small impact on most of

Africa during this period. Some Africans became Christians. Some also learned Portuguese. Europeans would have a much larger effect on African life when they established huge colonies in Africa in the 1800s and 1900s.Asia

In

Asia, contact with Europeans led to the spread of the Christian religion. European missionaries made converts in India, China, Japan, the East Indies, and the Philippines. In Indonesia, Islam also spread as Muslims competed with the Portuguese for control of trade.

At various times, both

China and Japan resisted the influence of foreign traders and missionaries. As a result, Europeans had a limited impact on these countries during this period. As you have learned, some Japanese and Chinese adopted Christianity. Warfare in Japan changed as the Japanese learned about guns from Europeans. Europeans also imported new goods into Japan, including tobacco. The Chinese learned about new scientific instruments from European missionaries. Some European books were published in Chinese, especially scientific books.

In many ways, the Age of Exploration was the beginning of today�s global society. Can you think of examples of biological and cultural exchanges that are happening today?

Enrichment Activity

Use the information from the essay as well as from Chapter 33 of History Alive! The Medieval World and Beyond to complete the following chart.

1. For each region in the chart, list an example of a biological exchange (plant, animal, or disease) that affected that region. Then draw an appropriate visual to illustrate your example. In the next column, briefly indicate the impact of the exchange on the region and its people.

2. Repeat Step 1 for cultural exchanges.

Biological and Cultural Exchanges and Their Impacts

	Biological Exchange That Affected This Region	Impact of This Exchange	Cultural Exchange That Affected This Region	Impact of This Exchange
Americas
Europe
Africa
Asia

History Alive! The Medieval World and Beyond, Enrichment Essay

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