Write a multi-paragraph account of how a hypothetical indigenous community experiences the Columbian Exchange.

Question

1. Write a multi-paragraph account of how a hypothetical indigenous community experiences the Columbian Exchange. Tell a story in chronological order of the changes that the community undergoes as it and the communities around it make contact with Europeans over a span of roughly 50 to 100 years.

Answer 1

Hi Jamie,

The Columbian Exchange is the circulation of plants, animals, people, culture, disease, technology, and goods around the world. It was set into motion when Christopher Columbus landed in the Bahamas in 1492—the first contact between European and Native Americans. 

So, where to start? What is the location? What would happen first? How friendly do you want your imagined indigenous community and their European contacts to be? Are the Europeans Spanish, English, or French? These nationalities all had different methods/priorities.

Regardless of which Europeans we are talking about, events likely proceeded along the lines of:

1. meeting and trading: the Europeans gain food and raw materials and the Native Americans gain manufactured goods.
2. The Europeans bring a disease that Native Americans have never encountered before, and so have no resistance to (like smallpox), and significant numbers of their population fall ill and die, in continued waves.
3. The Europeans disrespect local customs/take things by force—> instigate a military response from the Native Americans
4. The Europeans would escalate military actions to a much higher level
5. The Europeans would convert some Native Americans in an attempt to spread their religion and gain a labor force.
6. Once nearby Native Americans have experience with the Europeans, they spread the information and tribes in the region are much more hostile to the Europeans.
7. Once the Europeans reached a large enough number, they would push Native Americans out of desirable areas, or force the Native Americans to work for them, since the Native Americans lacked the high levels of military technology, and were weakened by disease.

This is just a general sense of how things proceeded. I suggest picking a geographical location, so that you can think of both what the Native Americans could have traded (what would they have traded for? what would the Europeans need help with? For example, if it’s cold, they will likely starve and really want food), plus what the Europeans would want (would they set up missions/forced work systems? would they try to force Native Americans off of land?). You can discuss how Native Americans would have reacted to new things like horses, metalwork, guns, European customs (like gender roles), etc. Have fun with it!

Any questions? Let me know!

Best,

Ginnie