Columbian Exchange: Were the effects positive or negative?

1. Exchange of Ideas

1.1. The Columbian Exchange influenced technological advances in the late 15th and early 16th centuries

1.1.1. A Written Alphabet

1.1.2. New Farming Capabilities

1.1.3. New Firearm and Weapon Capabilities

2. Exchange of Diseases

3. Exchange of Plants and Animals

3.1. A major consequence of Columbus's voyages was the eventual exchange of goods between the Old World (Europe) and the New World (the Americas). http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/columbian-exchange-overview

3.2. The export of America’s native animals has not revolutionized Old World agriculture or ecosystems as the introduction of European animals to the New World didThe export of America’s native animals has not revolutionized Old World agriculture or ecosystems as the introduction of European animals to the New World did..

3.3. The New World’s great contribution to the Old is in crop plants. Maize, white potatoes, sweet potatoes, various squashes, chiles, and manioc have become essentials in the diets of hundreds of millions of Europeans, Africans, and Asians.

4. Exchange of Diseases

4.1. European explorers encountered distinctively American illnesses such as Chagas Disease, but these did not have much effect on Old World populations.

4.2. Indigenous peoples suffered from many European diseases.

4.2.1. The list of infectious diseases that spread from the Old World to the New is long; the major killers include smallpox, measles, whooping cough, chicken pox, bubonic plague, typhus, and malaria