Transcript of Columbian Exchange & Spanish Conquest [APUSH Review]

And now it's time to talk about everybody's favorite transatlantic transfer, the Columbian Exchange. Yes. Oh, I know. I know. It's it's the best. So, if you're ready to get them brain cows milked, let's get to it. Okay. So, if you watch the previous two videos, then you'll remember that Europeans were going crazy in the 16th century to establish colonial empires in the Americas, as well as doing their best to dominate trade in the Indian Ocean. And chief among their motivations for doing so is to get enough wealth to make Mansa poop his pants. And we'll talk a lot about that in the next video. But here you just need to know that Europeans extracted stupid amounts of wealth from the new world and the Indian Ocean through trade. And there were two specific developments that made such trade more organized and efficient. First, there were improvements in maritime technology. Oh, and here's where I remind you or you know tell you for the first time that maritime means sea based or you know of the sea. So here I'm talking about technology that made shipping over the water easier. And let's consider a couple of examples both of which Europeans borrowed from Muslim and Chinese navigators. First, you had new kinds of ships that were built for trade, like the Portuguese Caravl, which was very fast and highly navigable. And one of the reasons it was fast was because it made use of everybody's favorite triangular wind catcher, the Latin sail, which could take wind from both sides and not just from behind like square sails. I know. I know. Also, Europeans adopted the magnetic compass, which helped them reckon direction as well as the astrolay, which gave them accurate reckoning of lines of latitude. Or to say all of that real simple like they built good boat and sailed real good. Oh, and by the way, if you want note guys to follow along with this video and all my videos and have some like quizzes to help you learn all this stuff, then that link is in the description. Now, the second development that facilitated the growth of trade was the rise of the joint stock company, which refers to a limited liability business, often chartered by the state and funded by a group of investors. And all that is a very complicated way of saying that joint stock companies made it so that anyone with some money could invest in exploration with the hopes of getting a good return. You see, funding an exploration outfit was a real expense and that led to two related problems. States only had so much money that they could invest in these ventures and it was a pretty common occurrence that they failed. So joint stock companies solved both of those problems. The money came from a pool of investors, not just a single source like a government who often had other demands on their finances like you know fighting wars on account of religion. But to be clear, even if they were privately funded, joint stock companies still relied on the state to keep their interest and activities safe while also granting them monopolies on various regions of trade. Anyway, the point is because this new way of financing exploration opened investment to a whole lot more people who could potentially strike it rich that had the effect of multiplying expeditions and creating more trade routes around the world. Okay, so those are two of the causes of increased maritime trade during this period. But now let's get to the juicy stuff and talk about the effects. And there is one massive honking effect that's going to consume our entire horizon in this video, namely the Colombian exchange, which occurred as a result of all this exploration and contact across the Atlantic Ocean that we've been talking about. And as is proper, I reckon we ought to start with a definition. So the Columbian exchange refers to the transfer of diseases, plants, animals, minerals, and people between the old and new world. And by the way, when I say old world, I mean this part of the world. And then new world refers to this part of the world. Okay. Now, I don't think it's too much to say that the Columbian exchange was one of the most significant developments in the history of the world because it led to fundamental changes on both sides of the Atlantic. So let's talk about that. So first, diseases were exchanged. Now, because folks throughout Afroureasia had been in contact for millennia, they developed immunities to each other's nasty germs. However, because of the isolation of the indigenous peoples of the Americas, the diseases Europeans introduced were devastating. Now, to be fair, there is evidence that those diseases had been present in the Americas prior to European contact, but if so, it had been a long time, and so apparently their bodies had forgotten how to fight those particular brands of cooties. So, for example, the Spanish introduced smallox to the Caribbean in 1518, and it proved to be one of the most devastating diseases set loose among the indigenous peoples of the Americas. On Hispanola, where Columbus first landed, smallox was responsible for the death of something like 90% of the indigenous China. And from there, the disease just followed along with Spanish conquest through Mexico and Central America, killing something like half the population there. And then as it spread through South America, it caused a similar demographic disaster. Additionally, the Spanish introduced measles to the Americas, which in some cases prove just as deadly as smallox. So, it is for good reason that indigenous Americans refer to this introduction of European diseases as the great dying. Okay. Now the second major transfer in the Columbian exchange was food and plants and this had major effects on both European and indigenous populations. European settlers introduced wheat and olives and grapes among many others which were staples of European diets. And eventually they also introduced African and Asian foods like rice and bananas and sugar to the Americas. And then new world crops like maize and potatoes and manio were also transferred to Europe. And then later when enslaved Africans were being sent to the Americas, they would also bring new foods with them like okra for example. Anyway, I'm not just naming food items for funsies. This transfer of foods had major impacts in both the old and new worlds. In general, the introduction of new foods created the occasion for a more varied diet, which meant healthier populations in Europe. That led to a population explosion after about 1700. And that's going to be a big deal in the next period when a lot of those people are going to immigrate to their country's colonial holdings. And then third, animals were a big part of the Columbian exchange. And again, animals went both ways, but arguably it was the horse introduced to the Americas by Europeans that had the most significant impact. Using the horse provided indigenous groups in the great plains like the Apaches and the Comanches and the Kyas even more effective means to hunt large herds of buffalo which was a staple food item for them and it definitely gave them an advantage in their conflicts with other indigenous groups which shifted the balance of power in favor of those groups that had adopted the horse. It was a change that fundamentally altered their way of life. But there were other animals introduced to the Americas as well like pigs and sheep and cattle. Because they had no natural predators, they went positively hog wild and multiply. And that definitely caused some problems since sheep ate metric buttloads of grass causing erosion that affected indigenous farmers and pigs and cattle had a habit of trampling and eating indigenous crops. And finally, the fourth major category of transfer in the Columbian exchange was minerals, the chief of which was silver and gold. And so, for example, as Spanish concistadors conquered major powers like the Aztec and the Inca empires, they plundered them for their massive quantities of gold and silver and that made Spain uh real rich. Now later on the Spanish would discover that the export of cash crops from the new world was also highly profitable. But at least in the beginning their entire focus was on getting that gold and silver. For example, this mountain right here is called Possi which today is located in southern Bolivia. And the Spanish loved this mountain because it was packed with metric buttloads of silver that was extracted by the hands of enslaved indigenous people. But the Spanish weren't all that worried about them because so much silver was being pumped into the European economy via Spain that two massive effects occurred. First, the price revolution occurred in which prices for European goods rose pretty steadily for about a century and a half. And then second, and intimately related, this economic change hastened the shift from feudalism to capitalism in some places in Europe. And without getting too far into the weeds, here's what that means. So feudalism was a social and economic arrangement that created a kind of closed system that focused on land ownership. But then capitalism was a more open system that focused on manufacturing and trade. Anyway, this shift was a massive change and the Colombian exchange was right there in the middle making it all happen. All these economic changes combined with the growing demand for more crops and mineral wealth in Europe is going to have major consequences later in this unit, specifically in terms of labor systems and demographic changes. But far be it for me to spoil all those developments here. Guess we'll just have to wait for the next video. Okay, click here to watch my other unit one videos and click here to grab my video note guides which is going to help you get all the contents of this course firmly crammed into your brain folds. And hey, I'll catch you on the flipflop. I'm Lorett.