The great biological exchange

Answer 1

The Great Biological Exchange was when the Europeans first contacted the New World and plants, animals, diseases, and ideas were spread.

The Europeans had not seen an alpaca, llama, or guinea pigs which were all so common in the New World. Nor did the Native Americans know or horses, pigs, goats, cattle, and maybe even chickens. Despite this, in under a century, some areas drastically changed from farmlands to grazing grounds.

The exchange of plant life was also very important. Native Americans introduced the Europeans to plants like peanuts, peppers, tomatoes, pineapples, cacao, and chicle ( which is used for chewing gum). Europeans in turn introduced plants including wheat, barley, bananas, dandelions, and rice.

Although the animals may have turned out to be a negative in some places, throughout the board, the food plants were more of a complementary. Corn produced in America flourished in other climates, including China - which saw a huge population boom. This dramatic increase in world populations was not seen since the start of the agricultural revolution.

Europeans also adopted many Native American devices, including but not limited to: kayaks, canoes, dogsleds, toboggans, moccasins, snowshoes, ponchos, Lacrosse, rubber ball. New words such as wigwam, tepee, moose, pecan, and woodchuck entered the European languages.

However, the most significant aspect was the transmission of infectious disease from Europe and Africa to the Americas. Since the natives had no natural immunity built up to these Old World pathogens, diseases like smallpox and typhus exploded into a pandemic never seen before. In central Mexico, more than 8 million natives died as a result of the Spanish arrival.