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What Caused The Columbian Exchange

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Disease and epidemics have challenged the human population for millennia. The Columbian Exchange, or the trading of disease, food, crops, and ideas between Europe and the Americas beginning in 1492, brought many changes to the societies, politics, and cultures involved. The Columbian Exchange is a two way exchange, commonly posed as a beneficial event to both parties. The Europeans gained trade goods such as silver, cotton, carvassa, and sugar and the Americas were introduced to new food sources, animals, and Christianity. Although the Columbian Exchange may have been beneficial, many negative effects were created that caused an abundance of change to Europe and the Americas. While the Americas faced devastation owing to the exchange, Europe …show more content…
Scientifically, syphilis caused weakened bones in the infected, birth defects, and deformities. The disease was passed from one person to the next and in some cases was passed from a mother with syphilis to her child. Children born of mothers with syphilis may have deformities, delays in development, or seizures. Some symptoms of syphilis include “genital ulcers, rashes, large tumors, severe pain, dementia, and eventual death. Over time, as the disease evolved, its symptoms changed, becoming more benign and less fatal.” The symptoms of syphilis are longer lasting than those of diseases in the Americas. Syphilis in Europe became an ongoing problem, evidence for which lies in Crosby’s book The Columbian Exchange: Biological and Cultural Consequences of 1492. Crosby writes that “The pox, as the English called it, had struck like a thunderbolt in the very last years of the fifteenth century. But unlike most diseases that appear with such abruptness, it did not fill up the graveyards and then go away, to come again some other day or perhaps never. Syphilis settled down and became a permanent factor in human existence.” Syphilis was passed down generations until the 1600’s, when symptoms changed to become less deadly. Finally a cure was found, but even then, the cure was not easily accessible. Despite the cure and decrease in symptoms, the disease continued to spread and grow. However, the Americas did provide a solution to the disease they passed ー rubber. Unfortunately, Europeans did not discover uses for rubber until 1770. The rubber could be used to make latex condoms, preventing the spread of syphilis. The first rubber condom was created in Europe during the British industrial revolution. Syphilis did not kill as many people as diseases in the Americas. Although the Europeans underwent the chaos of syphilis, the indigenous Americans underwent more

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