The Columbian Exchange Essay

The Columbian Exchange brought diseases, plants, and animals over to both the New and Old World. The Columbian Exchange also linked both the New and Old World together in the year of 1492. This exchange had both positive and negative affects on the two different land masses, which lead to many changes to both of these worlds. Tobacco and horses, however, were both major sources brought from the New World to the Old World . I believe that the tobacco leaf was a deadly exchange and has affected the United States and most developing countries today, but the horse, on the other hand, was very beneficial to the New World.  
Tobacco is a stimulant drug discovered by the Native Americans and was passed along to the Europeans when Columbus discovered the New World. Tobacco was used mainly for the pleasure of the Native Americans, but was also used as a medicine, but not very often.   Tobacco could be smoked, chewed, or sniffed for a variety of effects. Tobacco was smoked through cigars or pipes. Even though the Native Americans and the Europeans at the time saw tobacco to be extremely beneficial and helpful to their societies, today tobacco has caused the deaths of many.
Approximately eighty percent of tobacco users begin their addiction before the age of 18, and in the year of 2001 46.2 million people in the United States were current smokers(Global Trends). Tobacco kills half of its regular users, which is five million people every year(Global Trends). An estimated 1.3 billion people smoke tobacco(Global Trends). The reason why so many people die from tobacco products is because there is nicotine in the products which causes an addiction to the product, and forces the person to keep trying it. Consuming tobacco is one of the main reasons why people develop lung cancer. A study shows that people who don’t smoke tobacco live ten years longer then those who do smoke tobacco on a daily basis(Global Trends). People who smoke tobacco aren’t the only ones affected by the...