The Columbian Exchange and the Triangular Trade Routes

One of the most significant aspects of the Age of Exploration was the establishment of the Columbian Exchange and the triangular trade routes. Take a look at this Triangular Trade map and this Columbian Exchange map and understand the products that went from new to old worlds and old to new worlds. And the major products exchanged via the triangular trade.

More Information on the Explorers

Visit this website and use the dropdown menu to look at the significant discoveries of the following explorers. Research and take notes on Vasco Da Gama, Christopher Columbus, and Ferdinand Magellan.

The Columbian Exchange


The Colombian Exchange was a huge exchange of animals, plants, cultures, humans like slaves, ideas, and disease between the Eastern and Western Hemispheres(Old World/New World). It all started with Christopher Columbus' first voyage to the New World in 1492 launching the era of contact between the New and the Old world also explaining where the name Columbian Exchange came from.

The New World gave the Old World plants like- maize, tomato, potato, vanilla, para rubber tree, cacao, tobacco, etc.

The Old World gave the New World plants like- citrus, apple, banana, mango, onion, coffee, wheat, rice, etc. Most diseases, however, came from the Old World. Things like smallpox, typhus, diphtheria, measles, influenza, and malaria. Animals transported to the New World include- cats, camels, chickens, cows, donkeys, ferrets, domestic goats, domestic geese, bees, horses, domestic rabbits, domestic pigs, rock pigeon, domestic sheep, silkworm, water buffalo, and the guinea fowl. Animals transported from the New World to the Old World include- alpaca, chinchilla, guinea pig, llama, Muscovy duck, and the turkey.





Last modified: Monday, 11 September 2017, 9:42 AM