历史小径·世界史英语30篇（4）
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The Columbian Exchange: Two Worlds Meet
哥伦布大交换：两个世界的相遇
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After Christopher Columbus landed in the Caribbean in 1492, plants, animals, and diseases began crossing the Atlantic.
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Europeans brought wheat, horses, cattle, and smallpox to the Americas, where native peoples had no immunity.
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Native crops like maize, potatoes, tomatoes, and chocolate transformed diets and farming in Africa, Asia, and Europe.
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The potato alone helped feed growing populations in Ireland and parts of Germany and China.
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Sugar plantations in the Caribbean relied on enslaved Africans, whose forced labor fueled European wealth.
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New foods increased caloric intake and supported population growth, but disease killed up to 90% of some Indigenous groups.
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This exchange was not equal — it reshaped ecosystems, economies, and societies in deeply uneven ways.
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Still, it marked the true beginning of globalization, linking continents through biology and commerce.