历史小径·世界史英语30篇（2）
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The Age of Exploration and the Columbian Exchange
大航海时代与物种交换
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Starting in the late 1400s, European sailors crossed oceans using improved maps, compasses, and stronger ships.
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Columbus’s 1492 voyage accidentally linked the Americas with Europe, Africa, and Asia—starting a global transfer of plants, animals, and diseases.
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Wheat, horses, and cattle traveled westward, changing farming and transportation for Indigenous peoples across the Americas.
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Meanwhile, potatoes, maize, tomatoes, and chili peppers spread eastward, boosting diets and populations in Europe and Asia.
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Smallpox and measles, carried unknowingly by Europeans, killed up to 90% of some Native American communities within decades.
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Sugar plantations in the Caribbean relied on enslaved Africans, whose knowledge of tropical crops helped reshape global agriculture.
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This exchange did not happen evenly—it favored colonizers’ interests while disrupting ecosystems and societies worldwide.
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Still, it marked the beginning of truly interconnected food systems that continue shaping health and trade today.