When Christopher Columbus set foot in the New World, a global exchange began. Sometimes voluntary and often involuntary, the exchange of plants, animals, goods, wealth, and people took place between the Old World and New World. One of the more lasting exchanges and one that slowly germinated in New World civilizations was the exchange of culture and ideas. What cultural effects did the Columbian Exchange have? How did the Columbian Exchange impact European culture? What are the lasting cultural impacts of the Columbian Exchange?
Columbian Exchange Cultural Diffusion
When we look at the cultural impact, we are studying how the interaction of animals, plants, people, diseases, and technology changed how societies functioned in both the New World and Old World.
The Influence of Animals in the New World
How can animals change a culture? First and foremost, the New World had no beasts of burden. There were no large, domesticated animals that could be used in place of human-aided labor. In North America, the largest land animal was the buffalo, used for food, clothing, and bone tools; in South America, the Alpaca, a good source of wool for clothing.
The introduction of horses and cattle from the Old World revolutionized indigenous American cultures.
Horses in the New World
Horses forever changed transportation, agricultural production, and warfare in the New World. Entire societies quickly adopt the practice of horseback riding. The use of horses shortens the time for travel between villages and cities, increases the flow of ideas and beliefs, and works as a microcosm of globalization in the Americas.
Societies that once were too distant to interact with each other are now able to. Horseback riding also changes hunting practices. The game that was once too difficult to hunt on foot became accessible to the indigenous peoples. This exchange greatly impacted the way of life of Great Plains Indians in North America. Many tribes completely changed their lifestyles to become nomadic hunters with the horse's aid.
Fig. 1- A photograph of indigenous Americans from the Great Plains on horses.
Horseback riding also changed American warfare, infusing gunpowder weapons with the mobility of horses for flash raids. In terms of agricultural production, horses could pull plows, power mills, and transport a large number of goods. Increased food stores meant larger populations, increased economic activity, and increased cultural exchange within indigenous societies.
Cattle in the New World
Cattle influences New World culture in two significant ways. The first is culinary, and the second is economical.
Cows, dairy cattle, and beef cattle did not exist in North or South America until Europeans brought them. Indigenous cultures adapt and adopt dietary changes that will have lasting effects that coincide with the economic occupations that correlate with these animals. Dairy products such as milk, cream, and butter changed how indigenous peoples cook and prepare foods. Beef products were introduced into diets, and some cultures adopted beef as their primary source of protein.
The Influence of Cattle Ranching
Economically, ranching has become a dominant industry in many areas of the New World. Open plains across northern Mexico, central North America, and southern South America allow for the opportunity for ranching. Great examples of the lasting economic impact of cattle are in Mexico and Argentina.
Fig. 2 - Art depicting a Mexican Vaquero (cattle rancher).
In Mexico, indigenous peoples and Spanish settlers quickly adopted ranching, creating the “vaqueros,” early precursors to the American “Cowboy.” These vaqueros will herd cattle throughout northern Mexico, Texas, and the Great Plains from the 1600s to the 1930s.
The Influence of Plants in the Old World
The New World got some new fauna, but the Old World adopted a wealth of society-altering fauna. Can you dissociate Ireland from potatoes? Before the Columbian Exchange, potatoes only grew in the Americas. How about corn, tomatoes, peanuts, squash, pineapples, and tobacco?
Tobacco originated from Latin America but would soon be exported to a ravenous European, and then global, market. In 2014, over one billion people were reported as tobacco consumers. The massive economic shifts induced by tobacco instigated great social upheaval, from the culture of tobacco smoking to the many diseases it causes.
Fig. 3. Potato farm in Queensland, Australia.
Perhaps a greater illustration of fauna exchange creating cultural exchange can be found in sugar. Though it did not originate in the Americas, sugar was brought to the New World and cultivated in the temperate Caribbean region. Often broken down as the Atlantic Slave Trade, African slaves were brought to the New World, in which slave labor harvested sugar for Europe, an addictive substance that cemented itself into many European diets.
Silver and Gold, Silver and Gold
When compared to the thunderous introduction of Spanish Conquistadors, diseases, and horses, the impact of the New World on the Old World can be often overlooked. By the time of the Columbian Exchange, Europe's economy had backed itself on a solid foundation of precious metals such as silver and gold.
Imagine the delight of the European explorers, then, when they discovered mountains and hills ripe with silver and gold in the Americas (especially Southern America). Historians dispute the concentrated wealth of gold that the Aztecs possessed. Some postulate that Tenochtitlan buildings, furniture, and even clothing were decorated with gold. Others speculate that furnished Aztec gold was actually a metal called Tumbaga.1
Indeed, the very discovery of land in America shook the world economy. Land grants were often dispersed by European royalty in reward to their most loyal and successful subjects. More land in the Americas meant more land to distribute (without the consent of indigenous peoples, of course). North America also provided essential timber to European powers, allowing for the construction of vast fleets. Through shifting economics, cultures shifted rapidly in Europe, as power accumulate by the merchant elite over traditional royalty.
Columbian Exchange Cultures and Ideas
How do you study the influence of ideas? The exchange of ideas is the exchange of beliefs and technology. Both of which had profound effects on the New World.
Columbian Exchange Religion and Beliefs
The most influential “idea” was that of Christianity in the New World. Europeans brought Catholicism and the divine command to convert non-believers to earn salvation in heaven for themselves and the convert. Christianity only tells one part of the story, however, as thousands of non-Christian Africans were imported to provide slave labor in a strange new land.
Did you know?
Protestantism did not exist at the beginning of the Columbian Exchange. The Protestant Reformation began with Martin Luther in 1517. Later colonization by the English would introduce Protestantism to indigenous peoples.
Christianity in the New World
Spanish conquistadors in the 1500s used conversion to Catholicism to conquer and pacify the indigenous populations of Central and South America. Sometimes the indigenous peoples converted voluntarily; most of the time it was through force. Spanish conquerors would purposely destroy idols, ritual sites, and religious artifacts of the native populations as a means of coercion to convert to Catholicism. For the Spanish, conversion was a means of control and practicing their own religious beliefs. For the people of the New World, the impact will be profound.
Fig. 4- A depiction of the first Spanish Catholic Mass in the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan, painted in 1751 by Jose Valderrama.
Christianity displayed native religions as “pagan” or “false idols.” Conversions created issues within cultures between the new believers and the old beliefs. It created new tensions between indigenous tribes that did not exist before. In some cultures, the ancient practices were eradicated and replaced with Christian teachings and Catholic traditions. Other cultures, such as the Pueblo in northern Mexico and southern North America, converted to Catholicism and assimilated traditional rituals and practices into their Christian beliefs.
The discovery of the New World had a lasting impact on Old World Catholicism. For centuries the Catholic Church taught theology based on the Christian cosmology of a finite and known world of Europe, Asia, and Africa. The “discovery” of North and South America forced European theologians to reevaluate historical texts and change church teachings.
African American Beliefs in the New World
While European Christianity dominated the upper levels of New World colonial social orders, slaves and subjugated natives clung desperately to their traditions and religions as stability in chaotic times. From Africa came the religious spirits of Orisha, Loa, and Vodun, prominent deities seen across different African religions. Often practiced in secret, these religions blended aspects of Christianity, Islam, and Native American tradition to form unique spiritual traditions such as Santeria, Umbanda, and Candomblé.
Columbian Exchange Technological Impact
Technology is another means of studying the effects of cultural exchange. The introduction of Old World weaponry and technology influenced every culture and society in the New World.
Weaponry
European weaponry dominated New World civilizations through conquest and direct military action, but it also changed New World culture. Much like the horse, cultures that quickly adopted muskets, rifles, gunpowder, and cannon became the dominant cultures in their region. It changed how warfare was fought for many cultures, and thus changed how diplomacy functioned on both American continents.
As one of the few tribes who had early and consistent contact with fur traders in the late 1500s and early 1600s, the Ojibwe were one of the first North American tribes to have muskets. With this technology, they quickly took over a large portion of territory around the Great Lakes and displaced dozens of other tribes such as the Sioux, Cheyenne, Algonquin, and Iroquois.
Other Technologies
The practice of metallurgy and the printing press altered the New World forever. The study and creation of steel and iron altered New World agriculture, transportation, shelter, and art. The printing press, invented in 1440, facilitated the transfer of European knowledge into the New World. Printing technology allowed Old World cultural ideas to easily disseminate throughout the Americas and into Europe.
African slaves brought their knowledge of drumming and music to the New World. Such inventions as the bongos from Cuba reveal African musical influence in the New World, but other movements were well underway. The tension of Christianity, African spiritualism, percussion music, and slavery would later explode with the invention of Blues Music in the Americas.
Columbian Exchange Diseases
While an influx of wealth altered the shape of power in Europe, bringing great wealth to a rising merchant class, an influx of diseases wrecked the shape of power in the Americas. Smallpox, measles, typhus, and cholera, among other diseases, transferred to the unincubated Old World, wiping out vast populations. Conversely, syphilis transferred to the Old World, dealing its own damage to Europeans.
Millions died of smallpox, measles, and typhus, contributing to the collapse of the mighty Aztec and Incan Empires of South America. Europeans took advantage of the power vacuum. Imported African slave labor offset the loss of the indigenous population (contributing to the creation of new ethnic groups such as mestizos and mulattoes). At the same time, the very political, social, and cultural outlook of South America changed forever.
Columbian Exchange Culture and Impact
The Columbian Exchange brought about lasting cultural changes, better agricultural practices, new species of food, cattle, and the exchange of ideas. Also wrought the destruction of indigenous traditions, religions, and entire civilizations.
- As arguably the largest impact of the Columbian Exchange, the world became interconnected on a now global scale, creating and mixing languages, arts, food, and customs that would become the foundations for modern societies.
Cultural exchange in the New World - Key takeaways
- Two Old World animals completely revolutionized indigenous American cultures; the horse and cattle.
- The most influential “idea” was that of Christianity in the New World. Europeans brought Catholicism and the divine command to convert non-believers to earn salvation in heaven for themselves and the convert.
- The Old World brought impressive inventions such as print and gunpowder, diseases, and spiritual beliefs to the New World
- The New World brought potatoes, maize, silver, gold, and general economic and social disruption to the Old World.
- The cultures of the Old World merged with the cultures of the New World, largely in the Americas, creating a unique blend of cultural ideas and religions based upon the transfusion of animals, goods, and technologies.
References
- https://www.mexconnect.com/articles/1238-did-you-know-lots-of-real-aztec-gold-was-only-tumbaga/
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