The significance of Columbus reaching the New World

Columbus might not have reached his original goal of trying to reach Asia, but he did have some lasting impact on the rest of the world.  He was one of few explorers who connected the lives of the eastern hemisphere to the people in the Americas. He introduced Europe to many different crops that served to increase their food source.  He prompted other nations to start their own expeditions to discover and settle new lands.  The lives of the Native Indians would also be forever changed from this point on.

Both American and European lives were changed in what is sometimes referred to as the “Columbian Exchange.” Europeans became acquainted with corn, chocolate, potatoes, tomatoes, and various peppers and spices. These imports vastly changed the diet in the Old World. Tobacco also began to exert its impact.

Life in the Americas was changed by the importation of chickens, goats, horses, oxen, cattle, donkeys, sheep, coffee, rice, bananas, sugarcane, wheat, and barley.

On a more lethal level, diseases also were apparently exchanged. The Europeans brought a host of infectious maladies unknown in the New World, the most damaging of which was smallpox.