Answer to Question #260887 in History for Amar

Question

Lesson 2 Humans and the Environment Focus Question: Explain how the lives of human populations as well as environment relationships between Afro-Eurasia and the Americas transformed as a result of European expansion and the Columbian Exchange.

i need a whole explanation for what happend in my promote / what the techer said was this Choose two of the following prompts to write two shorter multi-paragraph essays

Answer 1

Plants, animals, and diseases were introduced across the Atlantic by Europeans, changing lifestyles and landscapes on both sides of the water. The Columbian Exchange refers to these two-way trades between the Americas and Europe/Africa. Sugar proved to be the most significant of all the commodities in the Atlantic World. Sugar had the same economic importance in the colonial era as oil does today. Rivals in Europe raced to establish sugar plantations in the Americas, fighting conflicts for control of the industry. Although refined sugar was available in the Old World, sugarcane cultivation in Europe was challenging due to the harsher climate. In 1493, Columbus brought sugar to Hispaniola, and the new crop flourished. The Caribbean islands and most other tropical places became hubs of sugar production over the next century of colonization, which drove the need for enslaved Africans for work.

Tobacco had enormous significance for Europeans as a cash crop—a crop grown for sale rather than personal consumption—despite its secondary importance to sugar. Before European contact, Native Americans had been producing tobacco for medical and ritual uses for generations, believing that it helped boost focus and knowledge. Its use was viewed by some as a means of obtaining a hypnotic, altered, or divine state. Before 1492, tobacco was unknown in Europe, and it had a poor reputation. The use of tobacco by native peoples was considered a sign of cruelty by early Spanish explorers. European colonists, on the other hand, developed the habit of smoking and introduced it over the Atlantic. Tobacco was given therapeutic properties by Europeans, who said it helped alleviate headaches and skin irritations. Even so, it wasn't until the 1590s that Europeans began to import large quantities of tobacco. It was the first really global commodity at the time, with English, French, Dutch, Spanish, and Portuguese colonists all growing it for the global market. Chocolate, manufactured from cacao seeds and used as currency by the Aztecs in Mesoamerica, was also given to Europeans by native peoples. Unsweetened chocolate was mixed with jalapeño peppers, vanilla, and achiote, a spice used by Mesoamerican Indians. Xocolatl, a chocolate drink, was used in ritual rituals such as weddings. Chocolate contains theobromine, a stimulant, which could explain why indigenous people thought it moved them closer to the sacred world.

The crossing of the Atlantic by plants like cocoa and tobacco exemplifies how the discovery of the New World influenced European traditions and behaviors. In turn, Europeans influenced the New World, not least by transporting animals from the Old World to the Americas. Christopher Columbus' second journey brought pigs, cows, poultry, and horses to the Caribbean islands. Horses helped many Native Americans turn hunting and gathering into a highly mobile activity.

Microbes were among the travelers between the Americas, Africa, and Europe: silent, unseen life forms with far-reaching implications. Native Americans lacked protection to diseases from the Old World to which they had never been exposed. Chickenpox, measles, mumps, and smallpox were unintentionally introduced by European explorers, decimating some cultures and completely eradicating others. One disease did migrate in the opposite direction—for the first time, syphilis, a devastating sexually transmitted disease, was brought to Europe by travelers from the New World.