历史小径·世界史英语30篇（4）

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哥伦布大交换：两个世界的相遇

After Christopher Columbus landed in the Caribbean in 1492, plants, animals, and diseases began crossing the Atlantic.
Europeans brought wheat, horses, cattle, and smallpox to the Americas, where native peoples had no immunity.
Native crops like maize, potatoes, tomatoes, and chocolate transformed diets and farming in Africa, Asia, and Europe.
The potato alone helped feed growing populations in Ireland and parts of Germany and China.
Sugar plantations in the Caribbean relied on enslaved Africans, whose forced labor fueled European wealth.
New foods increased caloric intake and supported population growth, but disease killed up to 90% of some Indigenous groups.
This exchange was not equal — it reshaped ecosystems, economies, and societies in deeply uneven ways.
Still, it marked the true beginning of globalization, linking continents through biology and commerce.