What is the overall economic result of the Columbian Exchange and Triangular Trade?

Impact of the Columbian Exchange

In Europe new types of foods improved diets and lifespans. European economies also improved through trade (see Mercantilism). Animals like the cow and the horse changed the lives of many Native American groups. However, Native Americans infected with smallpox connected to Asia, Africa, and Europe by trade and migration on a constant basis. We call this the Columbian Exchange. The Columbian Exchange transported plants, animals, diseases, technologies, and people one continent to another. Crops like tobacco, tomatoes, potatoes, corn, cacao, peanuts, and pumpkins went from the Americas to rest of the world. At the same time, Europeans brought in foods like bananas and coffee; animals like cattle, sheep, pigs and horses; and diseases like smallpox and malaria. This process is often seen as an earlier stage of what we call globalization today. European diseases had the largest impact on Native Americans. Diseases like smallpox and influenza killed millions of Native Americans. Historians estimate that diseases killed between 50% and 90% of natives. The large number of dead made their societies much easier to conquer and control. As Europeans took control of land, they needed labor for the cash crops (like sugar, cotton, and tobacco) grown in the Americas. One result from the need of labor was the development of slavery

The Triangular Trade

The triangular trade was the trade between Europe, Africa, and the Americas. Raw

materials like precious metals (gold and silver), tobacco, sugar and cotton went from

the Americas to Europe. Manufactured goods like cloth and metal items went to Africa and the Americas. Finally, slaves

went from Africa to the Americas to work. This trade created great profits for Europe. The lives of Native Americans were

severely damaged or destroyed through violence and economic and environmental damage. African slaves also suffered

horribly. The trip from Africa to the Americas was called the Middle Passage. In the Middle Passage hundreds of slaves

were packed tightly into ships. Conditions were horrible. Diseases spread in the small spaces, and as many as 20% of

Africans died before even arriving in the Americas. Survivors were sold into brutal slavery, working in mines or on farms

growing cash crops