ABSTRACT
The passage of human beings between the Old World and the New led to a much wider transfer of plant and animal life commonly known as the Columbian Exchange. The most profound changes wrought by the Columbian Exchange resulted from the transmission of microbes from the Old World to the New. The Columbian Exchange also affected plant and animal life in the Atlantic World. The tropical climate, lush landscape, and naked peoples encountered by Columbus and other explorers in the American tropics called to mind the Garden of Eden humankind still lived in innocence and bounty. The transmission of microbes across the Atlantic had a much less devastating impact on Old World populations than New. In the wake of Columbus, only one disease ravaged Europe’s population with the ferocity of a virgin-soil epidemic. Europeans and Africans displaced Native Americans, while the Old World’s demand for American fish, pelts, timber, and other goods tested the sustainability of many American species.
