The Columbian exchange and global interconnection: disease, trade, and climate

Contact between the New World of the Americas and the Old Worlds of Europe, Africa, and Asia led to a massive exchange of goods on an unprecedented scale. As Marks (2015) puts it, “most parts of the world were drawn into regular, ongoing contact in ways that had never happened in the past,” (p. 67). As Nunn & Qian (2010) point out, the so-called Columbian exchange resulted in gains and losses for both Old and New Worlds. Global trade routes in Europe, Asia, and Africa had existed for centuries but after contact with the vast empires of the Americas by the sixteenth century, the world had become significantly more interconnected. The interconnectedness was not just about trade; globalization also led to the exchange of diseases, with disastrous consequences in the Americas especially, but also in Europe (Nunn & Qian, 2010). The impacts of disease reverberated around the world, too, as the decimation of Native American populations offered financial incentives to invest in the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Nunn & Qian (2010) show how the Spaniards’ quest to exploit the natural resources of their American territories depended on the importation of slave labor from Africa. Thus, a sort of butterfly effect was taking place whereby an event in one part of the globe was having huge impacts at another corner of the globe. In addition to the way it impacted the slave trade, creating a major humanitarian crisis and genocides that lasted for centuries, the exchange of disease also contributed to the “global crisis” of population depletion that could have either precipitated or exacerbated the Little Ice Ace (Marks, 2015). As Marks (2015) explains it, dramatic reductions in the population would have meant fewer emissions from burning and other processes, subsequently causing global temperatures to drop. The Little Ice Age also had effects on crop production, leading to changes in population migration patterns. Without even realizing it, the European explorers and colonialists set in motion major changes to the world’s climate and populations, beyond their expectations. The Columbian exchange transformed the ways people all around the world eat, with such dramatic consequences that it is almost impossible to imagine that potatoes are not from Ireland and chili peppers not indigenous to Southeast Asia (Nunn & Qian, 2010). Similarly, the Columbian exchange caused the spread of various diseases worldwide, with lingering effects. It is even possible that the introduction of food products led to disease epidemiology that have yet to be explored empirically, as Nunn & Qian (2010) also point out. Patterns of trade have more measurable and immediate effects, affecting the way political, economic, and social structures evolved in different regions. Interestingly, the European colonization of the Americas also had an indirect effect of creating population and economic booms in Asia, as China became the leader in manufactured goods (Marks, 2015). The era of imperialism and colonialism changed the balance of powers worldwide, particularly in Europe, which was fragmented even while major empires blossomed. As Marks (2015) points out, Britain emerged as the premier empire and were more successful in their global conquests and territorial expansions than its European counterparts. In Asia, China and Russia had done a superb job of expanding their territories, and the current shape of both of these major landmasses exist because of territorial conquests from the seventeenth century. The growth of large empires had different effects in different places. In general, these two readings reveal several themes in the history of globalization. One theme is related to the major impact that the so-called Columbian exchange had, both positive and negative. The exchange led to a multilateral transfer of foodstuffs and other goods, helping Asia grow its economy as well as Europe and even having some positive effects on diversifying the food sources around the world. However, the exchange also had negative effects like disease exchange, population decimation, and slavery.