The Colombian Exchange

With the ‘discovery’ of the New World the ‘Colombian Exchange’ occurred. This was the exchange of plants, animals and other things between the Old World and the New World. The most devastating of these exchanges was the introduction of diseases like smallpox into the New World inhabitants. Native Americans had no resistance to these diseases and their populations were decimated. By 1650 it is estimated that 90% of the Native population had died. Scholars used to believe that all the tribes in the Americas were the direct descendants of tribes that had always resided on the continents. Instead it is now believed that the process of ‘ethnogenesis’ occurred. This is the process of new confederations being formed from the remaining members of older tribes. It is now believed that most tribes after 1700 were new composite groups of older tribes.

(Book – American Colonies – Alan Taylor) (The Great Courses – Turning Points in Modern History)

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