Introduction
An important observation made by Bigelow (1989) about the changing world came from a review of the book, Columbus: His enterprise , by Hans Koning. In the review, an influential aspect of Columbus emerged as seen in the observation that, “Columbus's fame should not be limited to the discovery of America: he also deserves credit for initiating the trans-Atlantic slave trade, albeit in the opposite direction” (Bigelow, 1989, p. 638). The statement highlighted the significance of Christopher Columbus’ undertakings, particularly the discovery of America and the Passage to the East Indies. Before Columbus’ discovery, the eastern hemisphere of the world had no contact with the western hemisphere and vice versa. Columbus established a link between the two hemispheres, making marriage between the new and old world permanent. Consequently, Columbus set in motion a cascade of events involving voyages from Europe to North American through perilous, unchartered seas. The adventurous men taking the journeys were looking for new trade routes, new enterprises, and riches, new lands to build empires for mother country, and to spread Christianity to the locals. For these reasons, Columbus’ episcopal voyages are referred to as the “Columbian Exchanges”, which simply means the exchange of things between the old world and the new world. Columbus ushered in a new era of exploration and settlement marked by long periods of exchanges, both positive and negative, in relation to their influence on culture and traditions of societies in different countries (McCook, 2011). This essay contends that Columbus’ discoveries led to the Columbian exchange that brought significant transformation in agriculture, civilization, and industrialization, which were proceeded by better exploitation of resources, a more civilized world, and new frontiers in medicine in the New American World.
Major Aspects of the Old and New World exchanges
Better Exploitation of Resources
The importance associated with the discovery of America is pegged on the Old World natural resource potential. The consensus among historians and critics of the Columbian exchange is that America was a vital resource for gold and other goods. The observation is particularly essential because the discovery came during the era when gold was a central measure of exchange and trade. Another significant importance of the discovery is that it opened access to new lands, which the European explorers perceived as fertile settlement and farming grounds. Therefore, better exploitation of these resources must be looked at through comparison of the pre- and post-Columbian use.
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The pre-Columbian era was defined by little knowledge among natives of the resource potential of the old America, which can be attributed to the fact that they only needed to satisfy their basic needs. However, the post-Columbus New World, influenced by advancements in agriculture and industrialization exerted pressure on the resources of the Old World. The subsequent developments are difficult to quantify for comparative purposes. However, James (2011) established that the phenomenon can be examined through review of the effects on slope erosion and floodplain sedimentation. According to James (2011), the assumption among “fluvial geomorphologists and stream restorationists, is that the pre-Columbian land use in parts of North America was relatively ineffective in accelerating slope erosion and floodplain sedimentation” (p. 339). On the contrary, similar events initiated by European settlement was sudden and substantial. Reassessment of the development by cultural geographers, anthropologists, geoarcheologists, and paleoecologists has attributed the increase erosion and sedimentation to technologies and economic incentives that improved the ability and motivation to clear land, plow deeply, mine, and exploit resources.
The Anglo American experienced a significant era of changes in humanized landscape and wildlife, driven by the need for more land and resource exploitation. Boivin, Fuller, and Crowther (2012) noted that exploitation was advanced due to the competing economic interest of the European naval powers namely England, France, and Spain. Each of these Europen countries sought to build expansive colony in the New America to increase trade opportunities, spread Christian religion, lands to build European empires, and increase wealth by exploiting America’s new land’s natural resources like silver, gold and spices (Boivin, Fuller & Crowther, 2012).
Civilization
The founding myth of the Old World suggests that America was a lightly populated wilderness before Columbus landed in 1492 and the subsequent arrival of European colonizers. The Old World was sparsely populated by nomadic tribes who lived lightly on the land. However, Mann (2005) observed that further exploration into the civilization in the pre-Columbus era suggests the presence of complex, highly organized societies. The sophistication of the pre-Columbian American can be seen from the Indian cultures who occupied the entire coastline from Maine down to the Carolinas. These indigenous inhabitants farmed and cleared land towards the interior, and had densely populated villages rounded with wooden walls. Priestly chiefdoms centered on large mounds existed in the Southeast, and can be seen to the present. According to Mann (2005) new research evidence on the Old World shows that America was as populated as Europe. However, diseases that preceded the arrival of the settlers wiped out the Indians. The points raised by Mann (2005) suggest that assertions of a less civilized Old World are unjustified because they are based on evidence from the post-Columbian era. The contention is that native Indians succumbed to European settlers because they were superior in technology, political organization, and moral character.
The superiority of the European allowed them to exert immense influence on the Old World leading to wholistic transformation in civilization. As a result, the culture and tradition of the natives were changed permanently. Before the discovery, the Native Americans were involved in hunting gathering and farming by creating monumental architecture, city-states, kingdoms and empires and chiefdoms. European colonization changed the native Americas lives and culture to homogeneous cultural practices, complex farming and social patterns (Mann, 2005). The Columbian Exchange had a central role in the transformation, introducing pigs, horses, and oxen to Americas. In addition, new languages were introduced including French, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, and English, hence opening the Old World to Europeans, Africans, and Asians who sought opportunities in its reincarnated state as the New World. Therefore, American became an integrated center of global cultures and modern civilizations.
New Frontiers in Medicine
Mann (2005) noted that the indigenous population of Indians in the Old America was substantially reduced by diseases prior to the arrival of the Europeans. However, there are assertions that the limited interactions between the populations reduced the spread of diseases. The pre-Columbian medicine and health practices are highlighted through those of indigenous native Americans. Koithan and Farrell (2010) noted that native American traditional healing is a holistic approach to treatment for healing multitudes of acute and chronic conditions or promote health and wellbeing. There are shared health beliefs and interventional strategies, though tribal variations existed. Health promotion was founded on the bio-psycho-socio-spiritual approaches and traditions. For instance, “Native Americans in Arizona run each day to greet the dawn, a practice that not only conditions their bodies but also nourishes their spiritual wellbeing” (Koithan &Farrell, 2010). Use of stories and legends to teach positive behavior, herbs, manipulative therapies, prayers, and ceremonies, was also common.
The arrival of the Europeans marked a paradigm shift in medicinal and health approaches. It can be contended that the pandemic that wiped majority of indigenous Indians in the Old World was aided by traditional medicine and health approaches that were less preventative. The situation was worsened by the arrival of the Europeans who brought with them diseases that devastated entire tribes of natives whose lack of previous exposure was a major risk factor. Rather than using their advanced technology to develop cure for the natives, Europeans resorted to using the diseases they were immune to as biological warfare against the vulnerable natives, reducing their populations drastically, as was the case with Smallpox.
Groups Affected
The group that bore the brunt of the discovery of the New World was the natives. Their culture and traditions were influenced irredeemably, and their social structured disrupted irreparably. In addition, they were targeted through biological warfare, using foreign diseases, resulting to significant population reductions. The beneficiaries of the discovery were the French, English, and Spanish, who exploited the resources and population of the New World to advance the interests of their mother countries. Such interests spanned beyond accruing gold and silver, and acquiring expansive land for farming. These countries also fought and competed among themselves to build colonies and empires as a way of establishing lasting influence on the New World.
Effect on the Life of Average Working American During the Colonial Period
The subsequent agricultural, technological, and industrial transformations that followed the discovery affected the ordinary working American negatively. The political organization of European meant the establishment of socio-economic classes, which is usually the case in a capitalistic economy, where a few individuals control the means of production. Therefore, the working American was reduced to a proletariat, whose labor was exploited for the benefit of the bourgeoisie - the wealth who ran the economy. One can argue that the discovery, despite its significant benefits, contributed to impoverishment of the working American. The assertion can be supported by the growth of slave trade, whose driving force was the need for labor in the farms and industries set up by settlers in the New World.
References
Bigelow, W. (1989). Discovering Columbus: Rereading the past. Language Arts , 66 (6), 635-643.
Boivin, N., Fuller, D. Q., & Crowther, A. (2012). Old World globalization and the Columbian exchange: comparison and contrast. World Archaeology , 44 (3), 452-469.
James, L. A. (2011). Contrasting geomorphic impacts of pre-and post-Columbian land-use changes in Anglo America. Physical Geography , 32 (5), 399-422.
Koithan, M., & Farrell, C. (2010). Indigenous native American healing traditions. The Journal for Nurse Practitioners: JNP , 6 (6), 477-478.
Mann, C. C. (2005). 1491: New revelations of the Americas before Columbus . Alfred a Knopf Incorporated.
McCook, S. (2011). The Neo-Columbian Exchange: The Second Conquest of the Greater Caribbean, 1720-1930. Latin American Research Review , 11-31.
