Following sustained contact between the Americas and the rest of the world, crops, animals, people, and diseases began moving across the Atlantic in large volumes. Maize, potatoes, tomatoes, and cacao moved eastward, while wheat, sugarcane, horses, and cattle moved west, alongside devastating epidemic diseases that drastically reduced Indigenous American populations. This exchange reshaped diets, agriculture, and demographics on every continent it touched.
Relevance to Trade History
Fundamentally altered global agriculture, population patterns, and trade in food and cash crops for centuries.
Read the full story in our article The Columbian Exchange and Its Global Consequences.
Source: Smithsonian Institution. See our Sources & Methodology page for how we select and verify references.