The Columbian Exchange

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• For tens of millions of years the dominant
  pattern of biological evolution on this planet
  has been one of geographical divergence dictated
  by the separateness of the continents.
• Even where climates have been similar,
  organisms have evolved differently because they
  had no contact with each other.
• Humans have reversed the ancient trend of
  geographical bio-diversification in the last few
  thousand years ushered in by the age of
  exploration spreading crops, animals and disease
  organisms.

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• The most spectacular and influential examples of
  this are in the category of the exchange of
  organisms between the Eastern and Western
  Hemispheres.

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• A.D. 458 Chinese early exploration near Baja
  California
• the Vikings about 1,000 CE
• Yang Qings exploration 1421
• Zing He and influence on 15th century world maps
• the Vikings about 1,000 CE, but the tsunami of
  biological exchange did not begin until 1492.
• In that year the Europeans initiated contacts
  across the Atlantic and Pacific which have never
  ceased.
• Their motives were economic, nationalistic, and
  religious, not biological.

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• Biogeography of the globe when Columbus set sail
• Everyone in Eurasia and Africa was a person who
  shared no common ancestor with indigenous peoples
  in the Western Hemisphere for at the very least
  10,000 years.
• The plants and animals of the tropical
  continents of Africa and South America differed
  sharply from each other and from those in any
  other parts of the world.
• In addition social structures, religion and world
  views (social, economic and political ideologies)
  were very different in the Western Hemisphere

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New Worlddomesticatedanimalsdogsllamasguinea
pigsfowl (a few species
Old Worlddomesticatedanimalsdogshorsesdonkeys
pigscattlegoatssheepbarnyard fowl
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• What the Spaniards Brought
•   New plants included wheat and other Eurasian
  grains pear, peach, orange, lemon tress chick
  peas, grape vines, melons, onions, radishes and
  many plants that became weeds.
•  They brought horses, pigs, sheep, goats, burros,
  and cattle.
•  Within a century, there were cattle everywhere.
  There were thousands upon thousands of horses
  available to anyone with a few coins or the skill
  to rope them. Legally, Indians were forbidden
  horses.

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• Most importantly, there were far fewer Indians
• A century after the conquest, there was perhaps
  one Indian for every ten or perhaps twenty who
  had been alive in the Valley of Mexico a century
  earlier.
• War, brutality, hunger and social disorganization
  took their toll. Disease was the single greatest
  cause of this population decline.

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• There were infections in the New World before
  1492 that were not present in the Old
• When we list the infections brought to the New
  World from the Old, however, we find most of
  humanity's worst afflictions, among them
  smallpox, malaria, yellow fever, measles,
  cholera, typhoid, and bubonic plague.

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• New Ideologies
• Christianity and the concept of monotheism
• Patriarchy
• Capitalism
• Individualism over Collectivism

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• The Columbian exchange started when Christopher
  Columbus petitioned Ferdinand and Isabella of
  Spain for a grant, to explore westward. 
• The  voyages of Christopher Columbus
  were significant maritime achievements.
• Columbus set sail for the first  time from Palos
  on August 3 1492, leaving a Europe wracked by war
  
• The population had been halved a century before
  by the Black Death

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• He landed on Friday October 12, 1492, and early
  wrote back to Ferdinand and Isabella how docile
  the natives were and how very unskilled in arms. 
  "They could all be subjected and made to do as
  one wishes", said Bartolome las Casas. 
• He soon after landed on Hispaniola, and enslaved
  its inhabitants.  From the beginning the
  Europeans were cruel to the indigenous peoples. 
• Within a year or so they had enslaved most of
  the people of Hispaniola, (Haiti and the
  Dominican Republic) in 1493 500 Arawak people
  were shipped back to Spain as slaves only seven
  survived. 

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• Five shivering captives actually reached the
  streets of Barcelona.
• Natives were grossly maltreated, often in the
  name of religion "they were hanged in groups of
  13 " in memory of our Redeemer and his apostles.
• In succeeding voyages Columbus explored the West
  Indies, and reached the mainland coast of South
  America.  After Columbus came Cortes and Pizarro

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• Epidemics of these diseases swept over the
  Americas.
• About fifty epidemics swept through the Valley
  of Mexico between 1519 and 1810.
• Brazil experienced perhaps forty epidemics of
  smallpox before 1840.
• When De Soto led his expedition through what is
  now the Southeastern United states, he found
  evidence of the passage of epidemic disease.
• The Pilgrim settlements were preceded by
  epidemics that may have killed ninety percent of
  the coastal Indian population. Other epidemics
  had preceded the founding of Jamestown further
  South.

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• By  1522 much of Yucatan, Mexico and
  Peru was under the Spanish  control. 
• It was December 1518 when the smallpox began in
  Santo Domingo, and soon spread to Yucatan,
  Mexico, and less immediately Peru. 
• The disease had a 12 day incubation period, and
  started with a rash, fever and vomiting. 
• The attack rate in a virgin population  was
  nearly 100 and the mortality rate over 50. 

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• "Viruelas" the Spaniards called was accompanied
  by measles, typhus, and later yellow fever,
  so not all the epidemics were pure, single
  diseases and it had vicious respiratory
  complications. 
• The population of Hispaniola was exterminated,
  and there was a  massive die-off in the rest of
  Meso-America. 
• Estimates vary from 50 to 90 certainly more
  than 20 million people died in the Valley of
  Mexico alone.
•   Cortes won Tenochtitlan as much by  the virus
  as the sword.

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• Golden Ages are in the past what followed was
  dreadful
• "It was the month of Tepeilhuitl when it began
  and it spread over the people as great
  destruction. Some it quite covered with pustules
  on all parts -- their faces, their heads, their
  breasts, etc. There was a great havoc. Very many
  died of it. They could not walk they only lay in
  their resting places and beds. They could not
  move they could not stir they could not change
  positions , nor lie in one side nor face down ,
  nor on their backs. And if they stirred, much did
  they cry out. Great was its ( smallpox)
  destruction. Covered , mantled with pustules,
  many people died of them. " (Sahagun - Florentine
  Codex)

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• Similarly Cakchiquel Mayan annals recorded
  "Great was the stench of the dead.   After our
  fathers and grandfathers succumbed, half of the
  people fled to the fields.  The dogs and vultures
  devoured the bodies.  The mortality was terrible.
  Your grandfathers died, and with them died the
  son of the king, and his brothers and kinsmen. 
  So it was that we became orphans, oh my sons. So
  we became when we were young.  All of were thus.
  We were born to die!"
• The people died,  agriculture was crippled, 
  famine followed pestilence they could not defend
  themselves, they could not feed themselves. .

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Aztec Calendar
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Migration History

• 1125-1325
• 1325-1520
• Aztlan and Ixitlan
• Near the 4 corners Aztec Monument Ruins
• Drought and starvation
• Prophecy and Symbolism

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Tenochtitlan

• Hydroponics
• Advanced Engineering
• Complex Social, Economic
• and Political Systems
• Military

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Tenochtitlan
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Religious Center Templo Mayor
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Hydroponics
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1325-1520 Rise of the Aztec Nation

• Culture Hutzilopochtli vs. Quetzalcoatl
• Day of the Dead
• Tonantzin
• Downfall of the nation

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Day of the Dead
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• The original celebration can be traced to the
  festivities held during the Aztec month of
  Miccailhuitontli, ritually presided by the
  goddess Mictecacihuatl ("Lady of the Dead"), and
  dedicated to children and the dead.
• The rituals during this month also featured a
  festivity dedicated to the major Aztec war deity,
  Huitzilopochtli ("Sinister Hummingbird").
• In the Aztec calendar, this ritual fell roughly
  at the end of July and the beginning of August,
  but it was moved by Spanish priests so that it
  coincided with the Christian holiday of All
  Hallows Eve
• the modern festivity is characterized by the
  traditional Mexican blend of ancient aboriginal
  and introduced Christian features.

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• Families visit gravesites decorating it with
  flowers, enjoying a picnic, and interacting
  socially with others.
• Families remember the departed by telling stories
  about them. Special meals are prepared for these
  picnics are sumptuous, usually featuring meat
  dishes in spicy sauces, a special egg-batter
  bread, cookies, chocolate, and sugary confections
  in a variety of animal or skull shapes.
• Gravesites or family altars are profusely
  decorated with flowers (primarily large, bright
  flowers such as marigolds and chrysanthemums),
  and adorned with religious amulets and with
  offerings of food, cigarettes and alcoholic
  beverages.
• The festive interaction with living and dead in
  an important social ritual is a way of
  recognizing the cycle of life and death that is
  human existence and part of Aztec beliefs

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New World cropsmaize (corn)white potatoessweet potatoesmaniocpeanutstomatoessquash (incl. pumpkin)pineapplespapayaavocados   Old World cropsricewheatbarleyoatsryeturnipsonionscabbagelettucepeachespearssugar
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•  What the Western Hemisphere gave to the world
• The greatest impact of America on Europe, Asia
  and Africa was the spread of American food crops.
  
• This list includes Maize, potatoes, sweet
  potatoes, tomatoes, peanuts, manioc, caco,
  peppers, most beans, and squash.
• All of these were unknown in the Eastern
  Hemisphere before 1492.
• In 1986, the maize and potato harvest totaled 788
  million metric tons. This was 78 percent of the
  1,010 metric tons of wheat and rice harvested
  that same year.
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Iroquois Community 15th Century
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• The growth of population and industrialization in
  Northern Europe could not have happened as they
  did without the increased nourishment provided by
  the potato.
• Millions of Southern Europeans and African had
  their lives transformed by maize. In the course
  of the eighteenth century, China more than
  doubled in population due in considerable part to
  new American food crops.