Columbian Exchange Influence on South Florida

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Columbian Exchange Influence on South Florida The Columbian Exchange is the exchange in goods between the “New” World and the “Old” World. It was called the Columbian Exchange because it was named after Christopher Columbus, after he discovered the America’s. The Columbian Exchange began when Columbus started trading with the Native Americans. The Columbian Exchange can be attributed for the origination of many modern day Hispanic foods. A major component of the Hispanic diet is rice and beans, which were not brought together until the Columbian Exchange. Rice originated in Europe while beans were introduced via Native Americans. Oranges were not native to Florida, so without the Columbian Exchange Floridians may never have enjoyed the benefits of oranges. It’s hard to imagine what name of the Orange Bowl might be if oranges were never introduced to Florida. The Columbian Exchange not only affected South Florida, but it played an integral role across the entire world. As an example, Italy would not have tomatoes, Texas would not have cattle, Mexico wouldn’t have burros, Ecuador would have no bananas, and Switzerland would not have chocolate! Although the Columbian exchange had many positive and beneficial outcomes to Florida there were some not so positive results. Without the Columbian Exchange, the smallpox epidemic would not have occurred. Small pox along with many other foreign diseases was passed over from the Old World to the New World, although not many diseases were passed to the Old World. Syphilis was the only disease passed to Europe. Based on the above information it is easy to see that the Columbian Exchange played a huge role in writing both Florida and world

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