The Columbian Exchange
Many years ago in 1492 the lives of the Native Americans and the Lives of the Europeans were changed forever. People, food, ideas, animals, and medical diseases were exchanged between the eastern and western hemispheres. Some of the exchanges were deliberate (food and animals) and some were accidental (diseases).
The Native Americans as we have discovered were hunters and gatherers.
There were no refrigerators or grocery stores for the Native Americans to buy and store their food they would eat. They planted seeds in the spring and harvested them in the fall. They searched on foot for animals to kill or trap and then they had to prepare the animal to prepare it for cooking and the other uses for its parts. Remember the Native Americans did not throw away any part of an animal they had killed.
When the Europeans came to the New World they were not prepared for the many hardships of life that they would face. Before they could begin to enjoy the bountiful riches of this new land they had to learn how to live with the Native Americans and survive in the wilderness.
When the Europeans lived in their various countries on the continent of Europe, they had homes and conveniences of the time such as stores to purchase their food, horses to ride or pull a wagon, cows to give milk and chickens to give eggs. However, they still did not have the modern conveniences that we have today.
These Europeans from England, France, Spain and other countries brought with them wheat to plant to have bread to eat. Rice was a staple, which had to be grown in moist fields. Coffee had been brought from the Far East and the Europeans were hoping that it could be grown on this new continent. Animals such as the pig, chicken, cow, and horse had been domesticated in Europe. It was documented in De Soto’s journals the use of the horse as they traversed vast amounts of uncharted wilderness. Can you imagine what it was like the first time a Native American saw some of these animals?
The unintentional transmission of various diseases was very devastating to many Native American tribes. When the colonist first began establishing their farms, they tried to enslave the Native Americans to work the crops. The Native Americans had raised crops for their family and village but not on the large scale adventure that the Europeans were trying to produce.
The Europeans needed to raise a vast amount of crops in order to pay their debts back to the king or other wealthy persons who had provided the investment for the expedition. They first learned through observation and working along side of the Native Americans how to best plant corn, potatoes, squash and peanuts which were taken back to the Old World. These foods greatly improved the poor diets of the Europeans.
Remember many different companies had advanced these first settlers’ funds in order for them to come to the New World. These companies had done this hoping to make vast amounts of wealth for their shareholders.
Thus by the 1620’s there was a need for other types of assistance to work the numerous farms and developing plantations therefore, slavery was begun in the New World.