Editing Columbian exchange (section)

{{Short description|Transfers between the Old and New Worlds}}
{{good article}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=November 2014}}
{{Use American English|date=January 2023}}
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| header            = The Columbian exchange involved plants, animals, diseases, and culture.<ref name="Smithsonian"/>
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| image1            = VegCorn (cropped).jpg
| caption1          = [[Maize<!--See [[Talk:Maize]] first - all of it - if you're thinking of changing this to "Corn", many thanks-->]] ▶
| image2            = Melissa Askew 2015-08-08 (Unsplash).jpg
| caption2          = ◀ [[Wheat]]
| image3            = Male wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) strutting.jpg
| caption3          = [[Turkey (bird)|Turkey]] ▶
| image4            = Cow (Fleckvieh breed) Oeschinensee Slaunger 2009-07-07 (cropped).jpg
| caption4          = ◀ [[Cattle]]
| image5            = Treponema pallidum Bacteria (Syphilis) (cropped).jpg
| caption5          = [[Syphilis]] ▶
| image6            = Smallpox virus virions TEM PHIL 1849.JPG
| caption6          = ◀ [[Smallpox]]
| image7            = Chute tobacco.JPG
| caption7          = [[Smoking]] ▶<br/>
From the [[New World]]
| image8            = Evangelización por la Orden Franciscana (cropped) (cropped).jpg
| caption8          = ◀ [[Christianity]]<br/>
From the [[Old World]]
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The '''Columbian exchange''', also known as the '''Columbian interchange''', was the widespread transfer of plants, animals, and diseases between the [[New World]] (the [[Americas]]) in the [[Western Hemisphere]], and the [[Old World]] ([[Afro-Eurasia]]) in the [[Eastern Hemisphere]], from the late 15th century on. It is named after the explorer [[Christopher Columbus]] and is related to the [[European colonization of the Americas|European colonization]] and [[global trade]] following his [[Voyages of Christopher Columbus#First voyage|1492 voyage]]. Some of the exchanges were deliberate while others were unintended. [[Communicable diseases]] of Old World origin resulted in an 80 to 95 percent reduction in the [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Indigenous population of the Americas]] from the 15th century onwards, and their extinction in the [[Influx of disease in the Caribbean|Caribbean]].<!--<ref name="McNeill 2019"/>-->

The cultures of both hemispheres were significantly impacted by the migration of people, both free and enslaved, from the Old World to the New. European colonists and [[Atlantic slave trade|African slaves]] replaced Indigenous populations across the Americas, to varying degrees. The number of Africans taken to the New World was far greater than the number of Europeans moving there in the first three centuries after Columbus.<!--<ref name="Nunn Qian 2010"/>-->

The new contacts among the global population resulted in the interchange of many species of [[crop]]s and [[livestock]], which supported increases in food production and  population in the Old World. American crops such as [[maize]], [[potato]]es, [[tomato]]es, [[tobacco]], [[cassava]], [[sweet potatoes]], and [[chili pepper]]s became important crops around the world. Old World [[rice]], [[wheat]], [[sugar cane]], and [[livestock]], among other crops, became important in the New World.

The term was first used in 1972 by the American historian and professor [[Alfred W. Crosby]] in his [[environmental history]] book ''[[The Columbian Exchange]]''.<!--<ref name="McNeill 2019"/>--> It was rapidly adopted by other historians and by journalists.