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Alfred Crosby’s Columbian Exchange: Indian Depopulation and Food Sustainability
The Columbian Exchange was a two-way biological and agricultural exchange. The Europeans and Africans brought Old World airborne diseases to the New World for which the Indians did not have any immunity, which they exchanged for syphilis. The Europeans’ livestock provided much-needed labor and food source in the Americas. In return, the Americas supplied the Eastern Hemisphere with an abundance of agricultural products which would relieve hunger, increase nutrition, and enable a rapid growth spurt in the world’s population.