Globalization: The Columbian Exchange

on the New World was both beneficial and destructive. An example of both was the trade of new plants and agriculture. The trade of these items worked two ways. First, new plants and ideas were shipped outside to Europe from the New World. Accounts from explorers and travelers such as Christopher Columbus and Hernando Cortez explain that the crops and animals in the New World were fulfilling and plentiful, exactly what they needed in their homelands. (Doc 1 and 2) Second, Europe brought their own agriculture and goods to the New World; things they could not live without. In an illustration from the Codex Florentino, ships of Hernando Cortez are being eagerly unloaded onto the shores of Mexico, signifying the trade from the Old World to the New. (Doc 5) The trade of such goods was important to the diet and changing society of the natives living in the New World. However, the trade was possibly more destructive than good. In Alfred Crosby’s description of plant exchange, he finds that most plants that are invasive ad destructive to the natural environment of

The term “Columbian Exchange” refers to the massive transfer of life between the Afro-Eurasian and American hemispheres that was precipitated by Columbus’ voyage to the New World . It was known as the widespread interchange of plants, animals, diseases, culture, human populations and technology between Europe and the Americas. After Columbus’ arrival to the Americas, the plant, animal and bacterial life began to mix between the Americas, which was also referred to as the “New World” and Europe, which was also referred to as the “Old World”. But how did the Columbian Exchange influence the Americas? The Columbian exchange had a huge effect, biologically, culturally, and demographically.

Products like potatoes, tomatoes, chocolate and tobacco have become part of our everyday life. However, only since the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus these products had been brought to our regions. After this discovery, the Columbian exchange started: products were transported from the New World to the Old World and vice versa. This exchange had an enormous influence on the world: without the Columbian exchange, the world would not be the same as the one we know today. In his essay, Charles C. Mann (2007) called the exchange the most important event after the death of the dinosaurs.

The transition from the Old World to the New World, commonly classified as the Columbian Exchange, was the basis of European expansionism and imperialism. In reference to previous and future endeavors in history involving expansionism and imperialism, were notoriously implemented in inhumane ways. Evidently, the Columbian Exchange, named after the founder of the New World, Christopher Columbus, was the introduction of numerous things such as: technologies, plants, animals, diseases, and cultures. As the Columbian Exchange is a significant event is history, despite the demise of numerous Native American tribes and Europeans, the Columbian Exchange is the beginning of modernization in terms of socio-economics in the Western hemisphere.

4.1 Describe the degree of global ‘interconnection’ after 1500 CE compared to before 1500. What were the overall effects of this change in global interconnectedness?

Globalization is the process by which different societies and cultures integrate through a worldwide network of political ideas through transportation, communication, and trade. Generally, globalization has affected many nations in various ways; economically, politically, and socially. It is a term that refers to the fast integration and interdependence of various nations, which shapes the world affairs on a global level. Simply put; globalization is the world coming together. In this essay I will discuss multiple perspectives on globalization through the analysis of these three sources.

Globalization is difficult to simply define due to the variety of changing definitions that have been established over previous decades. Hamilton and Webster (2012) suggest that globalization is the connection between nations, defining globalization as a process in which barriers are reduced in order to encourage exchanges between countries. This view proposes that globalization refers very much so to the trade barriers and the improved communications between countries in order to ensure the world is unified. Globalization increases economic activity across the world and opens up markets for foreign investment.

Globalization is utilized as the shorthand method for explaining the connectedness and spread of communication, technologies, and production across the globe. That involves the entwining of cultural and economic activity. People also use globalization in the evaluation of the IMF (International Monetary Fund), the World Bank, and the WTO (World Trade Organization) notwithstanding others in the making of an all-inclusive free market for services and products. Furthermore, this is conceivably and fundamentally harming to the dominant parts of poorer nations, often a way of exploiting the larger process. Then again, the wealthier countries might be profiting. About the network sense in social and financial life internationally, globalization has been expanding for quite a long time. The size and unpredictability of the included systems, the speed of trade and correspondence, and in addition the sheer level of connection, exchange, and hazard give what is by and by alluded to as globalization the exceptional force. Likewise, this prompts worries about the roles the World Bank, IMF, and WTO might be playing in this.

Globalization has an essence of countenancing humans to interact and combine within many avenues and these avenues helps branch countries’ cultures, currency, heritage (I could sit here and list everything, but that would forever). Currently the reasoning behind the globalization is

Globalization has become one of the most progressive processes our present day world has seen. It has propelled the world into great eminence and productivity with its many advanced characteristics and effects. This process is essentially the global expansion of integration and interdependence between countries with a standardized foundation. This process has allowed for people, trade, and information all over the world to be connected more than ever. With the world’s dependence on the outcomes of globalization such as trade, international institutions, and technology, globalization is nowhere from dying down, but rather it is a tidal wave that is taking over the world.

Increasing technologic advancements continue to generate more opportunities for globalization to expand globally. However the dominance of globalization and the effects it has on cultures has created groups focused on fighting the expansion of globalization (Godfrey, 2008). According to Giddens, “Globalization is identified as the intensification of worldwide social relations which links distant localities in such a way that local happenings are shaped by events occurring many miles away and vice versa.” (Giddens, 1990). The ideology of globalization is not a new concept but over time it has taken on different changes such as the size, speed, and awareness.

Globalization is the process by which people, cultures, ideas, and goods are spread across the world, stimulating the synergy and assimilation of world economies and governments. It references a global economy built on free trade and the use of foreign labor markets to capitalize on revenue, along with the movement of people, ideas, and knowledge from sea to shining sea. The study of history shows us that globalization is not a new phenomenon, rather it has been occurring for centuries. Whether one looks at trade routes such as the Silk Road, or the colonization of countries in the Middle East by European superpowers, they will see that these were all routes to spread economic and governing systems. With the increased availability to

Globalization as ‘the acutely adamant affiliation of economies, societies and cultures into a borderless accepted communications [technology] and accumulation arrangement [is] a world-transforming process, not all which is pleasant,’ (Morrison, 2010, p. 32). Although globalization is, and will apparently abide for some time, one of ‘a lot of ambiguous and misunderstood’ concepts, there is some accepted arena to be beginning an allotment of all the confusion (White, 2008). That is the abstraction of admission and relationships that go above the immediate, bounded ambiance. ‘Globalization is the action by which all peoples and communities appear to acquaintance an added accepted economic, amusing and cultural environment; but globalization as a theory, deals with the compression of the region and accession of alertness of the region as a whole’ (Robertson, 1992, p. 8).

Many often hear the term, but do not quite know what it means. Globalization is a modern term that is used to define a longstanding process. It is a process that basically connects people all over the world, with people all over the world. More formally defined by National Geographic, “globalization results in the expansion of international cultural, economic, and political activities. As people, ideas, knowledge, and goods move more easily around the globe, the experiences of people around the world become more similar.” (2015) Globalization has allowed citizens from all walks to life to achieve some form of communication with friends, family, and colleagues, all across the globe. As we watch technology rapidly advance, this becomes easier and easier. Although this seems like a positive position, it has actually opened up doors to situations that are progressively problematic, such as Global Warming.

Defining globalization is a diverse and contested issue, for instance some define it as the worldwide social relations that are intensified and link distant localities in such a way that things that occur locally are shaped by events that are occurring miles away and vice versa. Another definition is that it is a process of expansion and internationalization of interactive structures, networks and discourse (Seidlhofer, 2012). Despite all this differences in the definitions, they are consistent with each other in that globalization can create a word without boundaries in which people from different parts of the world can communicate, interact and share resources effectively with one another. This is made possible via modern information technologies, transportation and communication.